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Character Name: Poog of Zarongel and Chuffy Lickwound
Adventure: Jade Regent Prequel: We Be Goblins
Location: Vorka's Chamber
Catalyst: Riding the Bomb.
What happened:
So the goblin heroes of the Licktoad tribe managed to defeat Lots Legs Eat Goblin Babies Many easily. Reta made short work of Stomp with a powerful fire breath. The dogs were barely a nuisance. Vorka on the other hand was a real menace due to a string of terrible rolls and critical failures.
There was only one thing for it. Crazy goblin plans. Chuffy Lickwound had claimed the Skyrocket. So he lit it up and hopped on it like it was a riding wolf. Reta shot at Vorka one las time and left the room, Mogmurch tangled the cannibal in a tanglefoot bag to lock her in place. Poog blasted Vorka with a burning hands (accidentally stepping in the path of the rocket). What happened next can only be described via Sound Effects and Mouth Explosions.
Fortunately the treasure and continuity was in tact with Mogmurch and Reta splitting the treasure between the two of them.
Character Name: Talathel Andosana
Character Bio: Male Elven Alchemist 6/Fighter 1
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Taraska River
Catalyst: Got eaten by a fish
What happened:
The group got attacked by a pair of giant fish while fording the Taraska River. Talathel got swallowed by one while the group sorcerer got swallowed by the other. Everyone rushed to save their sorcerer while the alchemist got digested. They finally turned their attention to helping him just in time to cut him out, 1 point of damage away from dying. Unfortunately the character who cut him out was also on the initiative order directly before him, and so there was nobody left to heal him before his turn once he was out.
He bled to death. The party used the Amatatsu seal to revive him (that being this party's first use of the seal) and the Five Storms oni were veeeeery interested in their sudden burst of magic they detected in the crown of the world.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 8
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My group had two PC deaths in Ravenscraeg, and both were brought back to life quickly.
Character Vivrilise Andosana, elven foresight diviner wizard
Adventure Night of Frozen Shadows
Location Ravenscraeg basement Dojo
Catalyst black lotus extract
Oddly enough it was not during their second fight with Buttersnips in Goti's poison lab. She had been trailing them since Brinewall and improved with 3 levels of poisoner rogue and the feats swift poison, underfoot and disorienting maneuver. That was one mean quickling and this time they made sure she was dead!
Viv survived that fight, even with Buttersnips picking her out as the one she most wanted as taxidermy, only to fall to Omoyani's poison in the basement. She was resurrected almost immediately by the Amatatsu seal. I wouldn't feel too bad about falling to black lotus extract; apparently even Conan was afraid of the stuff.
Character Kaito Kaijitsu, human samurai
Adventure Night of Frozen Shadows
Location Ravenscraeg, Kimandatsu's Twisted Pagoda
Catalyst Tetsubo + critical hit
Kaito was wielding Suishen and dueling Kimandatsu in the air while the other characters used ranged attacks. Kimandatsu taunted "I'll crack your head!" The samurai countered with "My head's too pretty to crack." Kimandatsu scored a critical hit with her tetsubo and the pretty head was cracked, It was a short-lived triumph, because she fell herself before the round was over.
But dying can be fun when you're a hero! While he was briefly dead, the Samurai, who is one of Lonjiku's kids from Magnimar, had a conversation with the more permanently dead NPC Tsuto Kaijitsu in which he was reminded that if anything "happened" to Ameiko, he would inherit an empire.
In order to avoid the "drag his body back to town" problem, I had Shalelu arrive with near perfect timing and a vegetable smoothie in a hollow gourd that was actually a potion of temporary resurrection. Once he got back to Kalsgard, the Samurai had to live through an amusing thematic casting of raise dead at the temple of Torag that involved lying on a giant anvil and having a costly diamond pounded into his chest with a hammer made of spiritual energy.
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Character Name: Talathel Andosana
Character Bio: Male Elven Alchemist 6/Fighter 1
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Taraska River
Catalyst: Got eaten by a fishWhat happened:
The group got attacked by a pair of giant fish while fording the Taraska River. Talathel got swallowed by one while the group sorcerer got swallowed by the other. Everyone rushed to save their sorcerer while the alchemist got digested. They finally turned their attention to helping him just in time to cut him out, 1 point of damage away from dying. Unfortunately the character who cut him out was also on the initiative order directly before him, and so there was nobody left to heal him before his turn once he was out.
He bled to death. The party used the Amatatsu seal to revive him (that being this party's first use of the seal) and the Five Storms oni were veeeeery interested in their sudden burst of magic they detected in the crown of the world.
I'm going to have to step in on this: the sorcerer wasn't swallowed, but he had been bitten, to-be-swallowed next. Nobody expected the fish to fail its Fort save on his Su. ability to daze it.
What made it even more sad was that Talathel was the brother of Shalelu, who Rescued the crossbow-wielding dwarf from a carp-related near-drowning for his campaign trait. He was unable to save her brother from a similar fate, and was crestfallen even after the revival.
As an aside, I had played enough Oregon Trail during elementary school to know that when a wagon train has to cross a river, someone's going to die.
Character Name: Talathel Andosana
Character Bio: Male Elven Alchemist 6/Fighter 1
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Taraska River
Catalyst: Got eaten by a fishWhat happened:
The group got attacked by a pair of giant fish while fording the Taraska River. Talathel got swallowed by one while the group sorcerer got swallowed by the other. Everyone rushed to save their sorcerer while the alchemist got digested. They finally turned their attention to helping him just in time to cut him out, 1 point of damage away from dying. Unfortunately the character who cut him out was also on the initiative order directly before him, and so there was nobody left to heal him before his turn once he was out.
He bled to death. The party used the Amatatsu seal to revive him (that being this party's first use of the seal) and the Five Storms oni were veeeeery interested in their sudden burst of magic they detected in the crown of the world.
I'm going to have to step in on this: the sorcerer wasn't swallowed, but he had been bitten, to-be-swallowed next. Nobody expected the fish to fail its Fort save on his Su. ability to daze it.
What made it even more sad was that Talathel was the brother of Shalelu, who Rescued the crossbow-wielding dwarf from a carp-related near-drowning for his campaign trait. He was unable to save her brother from a similar fate, and was crestfallen even after the revival.
As an aside, I had played enough Oregon Trail during elementary school to know that when a wagon train has to cross a river, someone's going to die.
Yeaaah XD I was typing this one pre-emptively during the game. Didn't expect you to daze the fish; I did expect its CMB to easily overcome your CMD. Must've forgotten to change 'swallowed' to 'grappled' in the opening line.
Incidentally, hi! I didn't know you frequented the non-PFS side of the forums! (And what're you doing reading a spoileriffic thread about the adventure you're playing in? Out! Shoo!) XD
Character Name: Nezumi ( Fighter 1/Sohei 4 )
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: The mean streets of Kalsgard
Catalyst: Arrow to the throat
What happened:
The party was returning to Kalsgard from the funeral of Snorri Stone-Eye, frustrated with a recent failure to interrogate a captured Frozen Shadow Ninja ( who died, in a messy Scanners-manner, of the blood oath ), when Hekja, the sniper assassin, struck from a rooftop. Figuring Koya ( who is being active as a player character ) as an easy target, Hekja sniped her for 20 damage. Nezumi, using her Sohei power, managed to cast Shield Other from Whispering Shrike on Koya during her own action in the surprise round ( despite being surprised ). Hekja won initiative and Nezumi thus managed to absorb enough damage from the subsequent two sneak attacks from Hekja to only bring Koya to negative hitpoints, instead of outright killing her.
Nezumi then proceeded to speed-climb ( I allowed an Acrobatics check for some impromptu Parcour ) the building front of the house Hekja was sniping from, prompting Hekja to try to retreat. After Koya was brought back to positive hitpoints, the entirety of the party managed to corner Hekja in the backyard where she had stashed her escape horse, commandeer her horse and web her invisible self back into visibility ( via a summoned Medium Spider ). Hekja finally had enough of trying to escape while suffering minor damages, and tried to shoot her way out of the situation. Cue critical hit with Deadly Aim on Nezumi, who still had those 20+ points of damage from the start of the encounter on herself. 48 points of damage, instant kill.
Hekja was bludgeoned into submission shortly thereafter, while Nezumi was brought back from death by the Amatatsu Seal. That's the second character to die in the campaign, once again to a critical hit by a ranged weapon. And now the party has painted an even bigger neon sign on their backs by using the Amatatsu Seal. Exciting times ahead!
This module is much better in play, by the way, than how it reads. Lots of guess-work, lots of investigation. It'll be interesting how it continues, although I dread the dungeon crawl a bit. And then there's the second group of players, who will arrive in their campaign in Kalsgard soon enough ( already half through Brinewall Castle ) and will do things totally differently.
So far Jade Regent has been a very rewarding campaign.
Character Name: Ameiko Amatatsu (Female Human Aristocrat 1/Bard 5/Rogue 2)
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Boreal Expanse
Catalyst: The jaws of a young frost worm.
What happened:
After defeating Katiyana at the storm tower, Ameiko decided it was finally time to stop hiding in the caravan like the other NPCs insisted she did. The party witch had been getting increasingly derisive towards Ameiko, whom she frequently called useless, and Ameiko had finally gotten sick of it enough to go out and prove her wrong.
The next encounter the group came across was a battle with a young frost worm. Ameiko showed her skill by critically hitting the monster for nearly-maximum damage immediately after the witch lost half her hp total to a single wormy bite.
So the frost worm responded by biting Ameiko. And it bit its way to a critical hit, dealing 84 damage to the Amatatsu heir, and dropping her from her full hp total to -40, crushing her skull in its jaws before ripping it clear off her neck.
Fortunately the group's previous death had been just over a month ago, and so the Amatatsu seal was just barely recharged and ready to bring her back to life. The party witch sighed upon her revival that now Ameiko would have to die again for her (the witch) to become empress. Ameiko retorted that Pharasma had said she (the witch) could skip the line in the boneyard when she died, and just go straight to Abbadon (And Ameiko successfully bluffed this, so the witch believes its true and is now somewhat more fearful of dying than she was before). Several days later, during the battle of Dead Man's Dome, the witch delivered a cure spell to Ameiko through a "touch" that consisted of a slap to the face. Ameiko responded by specifically avoiding giving the witch the benefits of her inspire courage, and secretly giving the bonus to hit and damage to any undead that got near the witch, resulting in some very nasty zombie bites.
Those zombies wouldn't happen to be of the infectious persuasion would they? ^___^
Not this time. The encounter was harrowing enough I think.
I loved getting to run a huge horde of several dozen (36) zombies and some (8) hoarfrost spirits. Very fun sending a new wave at them when they finally start relaxing as half the first wave goes down.
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Character Name: Shen-ri (Human Wizard 7)
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Village stop off (Section B, I believe)
Catalyst: Painting a target on oneself.
Having bested Raven'scraeg, and bidding farewell to Karlsgard, the party headed into the mountains. As the entered the camp they were greeted by two human hunters (Bert and Ernie) who offered them a warm meal if they wanted to stay with their 'Ma' ol Maguyu. Declining the offer the party was saved being murdered in the night by the wights, only to be assaulted by the witchfire herself!!
With a pyrotech blinding the cavaliers, the wizard took it upon himself to unleash a flurry of magic missles into the witchfire, she returned the favor with two bolts... and the wizard was naught but a pile of ash.
(Expecting more as they nearly TPK'd vs Tunuak and the village... and we left off last session with the Oracle of Life being kidnapped by the white dragon!!)
And just for Halloween sake, will have the hungry dead horde doing the thriller dance as they advance, with vampire Vincent Price being the overseer.
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had a technical character death last night vs the dragon in hungry storm. I say techincal, because I let him live through DM fiat, by getting tapped with a CLW wand the round he went neg CON. it was the second time that this player's PC had died due to the action or inaction of another particular player.
I upped the dragon to adult, to try and match my 6-player table of powergamers. should have buffed it more! though it did last 3 rounds.
the fight against the village oracle was all 3 encounters at once, which they did with little problem.
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Character Name: Malnival Selintin
Character Bio: Male Elven Magus 7
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Vegsundvaag's Lair
Catalyst: Dragon Aggro
After learning about the white dragon's predations on Iqualiat, Malnival was very excited to run off and slay the dragon. The rest of the party, much less so. After the grueling trek over the glacier, they reach the dragon's crevasse, first encountering it outside. Mal proceeds to insult Vegsundvaag in draconic, something along the lines of "you're my new pair of boots". A couple of fly-by attacks bring Mal into the single digits before it has to retreat, but lesson not learned.
Malnival is healed, but not fully so.
Into the crevasse, when they again face the now wounded and desperate dragon, he again garners its attention. A Full Attack Action sequence later, and the elf bravo is soaking the ice with blood.
Character Name: Shaelelu
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Catalyst: DRAGON!
Character Name: Istavan Varia (Ranger 7)
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Catalyst: DRAGON!
Character Name: Sandru
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Catalyst: DRAGON!
Vegsundvaag, wow what a killer fight!! As the party sent ranger team into her lair (hoping to bait her out), all seemed to go poorly when she burst from the ground and Ice Shaped the entrance shut (with a fog cloud going).
Luckily the druid also had ice shape, and a mini battle of spell casting went off (with no one wanting to enter the fog, and the ranger team escaping with only a single AoO).
Sounding the parties retreat, their deaf oracle proceeded to taunt the dragon about her dead children and ran into the plains.... unfortunately he forgot about her burrow/iceshape combo. Soon he found himself falling (feather fall though), sixty feet to the awaiting dragon, who proceeded to grapple with her tail and take him back into the cave.
(Could have just murdered him with a Full Attack, but I figured she would be cruel enough to drop him down the chasm and watch him slowly starve to death).
The party followed, and soon found themselves looking down an impossibly dark chasm until they saw his holy symbol flash from down below!
And so battle was to be joined again!! The cavalier dove down (flying) with his lance to hunt the beast, while the oracle tried climbing up with the ice bear claws. The remaining party members had their readied actions to shoot the dragon if they saw her... and soon they did!! She had been hiding just beneath the ledge and reared her head to bite/grapple/drop Sandru down the chasm (once again, ice shape could have probably had them all fall.. but seemed a bit petty).
Luckily for Sandru the cavalier (his brother) managed to see him on the way down and flew to his rescue, as for team ranger + druid up top, the druid leapt onto her back to keep her from flying, while the rangers peppered her with arrows. (Next round, druid rolled poorly and slipped from grapple, managing to catch himself in one of her escape tunnels).
The cavalier deposited Sandru in her hoard, and had him scanning for whatever might be magical to help kill her (while the party is fighting for their lives above!!!), poor Shaelelu however had no such flying angel to save her, and when she was thrown, fell quickly to her death (almost hitting the oracle). Istavan seeking to avenge the fallen elf, unleashed a flurry of crits (really.. back to back crits, made the 50% invis rolls on both.)
Vegsundvaag repaid the ranger by pulping him in a full attack of her own (complete with two crits), while the druid climbed the walls and Sandru/Cavalier found the dragon slaying arrow. With the cavalier holding a true-striked arrow wielding Sandru flew into her like a missle, the oracle (who had done very little this combat) rolled the dragon's save... NAT 20!
Vegsundvaag turned her actions towards Sandru, and soon another body was added to the pile! However three more crits (two from the Cavalier wielding Suishen, and one from the druid) laid her low....
Character Name: Duga Rumar (Half-Orc Cavalier 8)
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Catalyst: Hoarfrost Spirits
Lost a character in my second Jade Regent group tonight. While approaching the storm tower, they attempted to sneak past the surrounding packs of hoarfrost spirits. In an unlucky set of rolls the group ended up getting surrounded by a roaming pack of 8 Hoarfrost spirits.
While fighting the hoard of undead, the nearly untouchable and mighty Duga got hit by an errand natural 20 and failed his fortitude save against the paralysis effect while surrounded by 5 other undead. After taking. The Hoarfrost spirits crawled all over him, delivering a Coup de grace in the following round before the others could rescue him.
The death, was only temporary, as the seal was quickly unboxed and used to resurrect the fallen warrior.
Character Name: Aruban ( Witch 5 )
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Ravenskraeg entrance
Catalyst: Overconfidence and Deathblade poison
What happened: The party had pursued the ninja who abducted Shalelu in a night raid on the partys headquarter in Kalsgard and, after encountering and defeating ( yet not killing, she escaped ) Omoyamani on the road, they arrived at Ravenskraeg. Being cautious in their approach, they scouted out the exterior ascent via long range perception checks and managed without much problem to find the huge wasp nest-like hive of the Spider Eater.
Deciding that it would probably be better to lure out whatever lived in that gigantic wasp nest before encountering it up close, Matino the bard lobbed an acid flask via a sling at the nest and the Spider Eater emerged, rapidly put some snow on the nest to neutralize the acid and promptly fly-charged the bard, hitting him with his stinger and paralyzing him for an estimated 11 weeks.
Long story short, the party defeated the Spider Eater and Aruban, who had a Fly spell cast on him during the combat, decided to attack the two tengu ninja who had revealed themselves during the battle and who were on the seventh landing in front of the entrance to the longhall ( the third tengu ninja having gone inside to alert the garrison ). Aruban buffed himself up with potions and spells and ( against the protest of another player ) charged up to the ninjas, to attack them with his mighty hair.
The two ninja had seen that coming, of course and readied actions to use their vanishing trick and attack with their blowguns ( we had talked prior to Arubans charge if we'd want swift actions to be allowed with ready actions and the consensus had come out to allow them ). One missed, yet the other hit Aruban.
While Aruban and Nezumi the monk ( who had sneaked up on Ravenskraeg under a polar bear pelt and had to sit out the prior combat against the Spider-Eater ) managed to kill the two ninja, one of the ninja being dragged to a messy falling death down the cliff face ), Aruban could not overcome the high DC of the poisonous dart and lost conciousness, then died two rounds later.
The party retreated hastily to Kalsgard to raise Aruban ( deciding against a Reincarnation ) and returned five days after their departure to a vastly better prepared Ravenskraeg. I fear I may return soon to this page with more dire news. ^^
The players were a bit distressed with all the expensive loot being shot at them, instead of the NPCs nicely just wearing it. :D
Ps. This is my first pc kill. I feel so proud.
<sigh> I feel like I'm beating up on this one party, while the other just waltzes through any of the encounters. They have vastly different power potentials, though, one group has four players with very unoptimized characters, while the other has six players, all of them with well-built characters.
One thing is for sure, though, I'll never again complain to Paizo how easy their APs are. What a difference the contrast between two groups can make.
Character name: Shalelu Andosana
Adventure: Hungry Storm
Location: Uqtaal Necroplis
Catalyst: Headless Aura + Coup de Grace
Not exactly a PC kill, but certainly a notable death in my "Group 1". The party was exploring the octagonal towers in the very entrance of the Necropolis when they found one of the headless creatures. "Shae" and Sandru were accompanying the party when combat broke out between one of the headless the group uncovered. After two rounds of combat and a lot of paralysis, the second headless joined the fray, catching the group from behind.
Shae gets paralyzed as the group finishes off the first one and rush to help her, unfortunately though, the Headless was able to coup de grace her before the group could put it down for good. Fortunately she saved against the mummy rot, unfortunately she couldn't make the save to not be killed outright by the attack.
All the joking and cutting up at the table quickly ceased as a rather mundane encounter suddenly became serious and lethal.
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You know, our friend left the game between sessions due to moving issues. I don't quite think this warrants an obituary, but there's nobody to play his character, so...
Name: Mike's Fifth Character Whose Name Eludes Me
Race: Nezumi
Origin: Seigyoku (our world's Japan.)
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: The House of Withered Blossoms
Cause of Death: Left game, araneas
Uh...: So I promised that as he left the game, I would give his fifth character an obituary that measured up/mocked him, just like I gave Duster Ross, Hadji Abobo, Fhen Fan, and Mokiyama before. He's gone through more characters than Doctor Who has.
Hide Behind the Pile of Dead Characters: So, his new character. A nezumi who was forced to leave Ordu-Agahei with the group's new healer, Megumi Ito. She's an oracle with the curse that causes her to break everything she touches, so she uses a broken Staff of Healing as her weapon. OJ Simpson jokes get made repeatedly. This is not Mike's new character. Mike's character is a nezumi wizard, who the group finds wandering in the Forest of Spirits and claims to be a guide. Very skeptical, the group takes him along anyway. He and Miyaro soon lead the party to to/shame the party into visiting the House of Withering Blossoms.
Moving On: So, the group goes through the first few levels of the House of Withered Blossoms, setting off (almost) every trap on the way over. The areneas are busy watching the group fight on, and they notice the grates in the ceiling. It is realized that the nezumi is the only one small enough to fit through them, so he "wins" the chance to investigate the next level.
Welco Metot Henex Tlevel: He reports back that "there's webs! Lots of webs!" right before he is beset upon by 48 araneas.
Forty-eight!?: I rolled really well on those Mirror Image castings. I get to see Mike's "D8" face and his character is nearly killed trying to squeeze back through to the party.
End of session.
Next Session: Mike's no longer in the game, so the first thing that happens is the nezumi is about to say something. Before he says in my voice, "I HAVE TO GO NOW. MY HOME PLANE NEEDS ME," something reaches through the gratings, latches onto the nezumi's head, and pulls him (very forcefully!) through the gratings. I call for Perception checks, and everyone gets to hear "what sounds like a nezumi wizard getting ripped in half."
So His Next Character?: (sweatdrop)
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Six deaths so far in Jade Regent, but one of them was more or less scripted.
NAME: Marius
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Human sword-and-board fighter 1 (AC 20 at 1st level!)
KILLER: Tsutamu, skeletal ronin (JR 1)
CAUSE: Hit, hit, crit. Ouch.
AFTERMATH: Still dead. Player created Enzo, rakish younger brother of Sandru.
NAME: Arkan
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Half-elf barbarian 4
KILLER: Hydra (side-quest on the way to Kalsgard)
CAUSE: Group completely left him alone to be full-attacked! They even had -- still have -- an earth elemental gem they didn't use!
AFTERMATH: Raised by the Amatetsu seal, pinging the bad guys.
NAME: Jaekun
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Human cleric 4 of Abadar
KILLER: Lustspawn in disguise (JR 2)
CAUSE: Will save vs. sleep - 3. Fort save vs. coup de grace - 2.
DETAILS: I have a large group, so I made the Soggy River Monster a mated pair, and the lustspawn revenge-stalked the group until she was able to infiltrate them as a "PC," Sofi, played with scary genius by Laura. Immediately they left the new "PC" with Jaekun, and she got lucky killing him. The beautiful part is that invisible ninjas immediately began showing up, and the group naturally blamed the ninjas, so she was able to stay infiltrated for several more sessions, until making another excellent attempt on the lives of two more members (though they survived against all odds).
AFTERMATH: Still dead, as the Amatetsu seal has not recharged. Player created Daschel, halfling life oracle.
NAME: Hurmden "Jargh" Cragtokker
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Dwarf druid (Bear-totem) 5
KILLER: His own team-mate, the ronin/rake Enzo (JR 2)
CAUSE: Voluntary decapitation for a blood-ritual.
DETAILS: I had already made Jorgan more interesting by making him a natural weapons fighter, streamlining him, giving him better feats, and making him much scarier. When I found out that Jargh's player -- who had been a mainstay in the group for years -- was moving cross-country and this would be his last session, I decided to give him a final scene worthy of his contributions. I planted evidence in Ravenscraeg that Jorgan had undergone a ritual from the murder god -- Yae-zhing or something like that? -- to make him literally unkillable ... except by weapons anointed in the death-blood of a slaughtered sapient bear. In an absolutely epic battle in which both players and their PCs realized the PCs were all going to die, Jargh's player forced the samurai, Enzo, to kill him in his Bear-form, collect his blood, and use it to stop Jorgan. It was a fantastic session, unrepentant rail-road and all.
AFTERMATH: Still dead and greatly mourned. (Enzo got a memorial tattoo.)
NAME: Tauredil
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Half-elf ranger 5
KILLER: flame strike trap (JR 2)
CAUSE: Goti Runecaster softened him up hard, and after that fight, when he was down to 3 HP, the group decided to open "one last door."
AFTERMATH: Returned to life (after Enzo, below) by the Amatetsu seal, pinging the bad guys again.
NAME: Enzo Vhiski
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Human samurai 2 / rogue 4
KILLER: Kimandatsu (JR 2)
CAUSE: Uh ... 'cause Kimandatsu is a bad-ass?
AFTERMATH: Returned to life with a scroll read by Koya. Guilt-ridden and self-loathing.
Character Name: Falk ( Fighter 5 )
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Kimandatsus Lair
Catalyst: Cone of Cold to the face
This is my second group which is running Jade Regent. Opposed to the first group, they have it way better, with six party members instead of just four and a way better composition ( Samurai, Ninja, Ninja, Fighter, Bard, Cleric ). As with the other group, Shalelu had been abducted by the Frozen Shadows and the party was about to infiltrate Ravenskraeg. Contrary to the other group, they chose a completely different tactic to do so. One of the Ninjas, who has a level in Wizard, had bought a Wand of Gaseous Form with ten charges. That was enough to transform the party and Koya, Ameiko and Sandru into a gaseous form and they infiltrated Ravenskraeg this way in the night.
Smartly taking the way through the grate into the cellar in the backyard, they quickly found Suishen ( necessitating a tranformation back by the Ninja into corporeal form and the last charge from the Wand to transform back into gaseous form ) and then proceeded to manage to infiltrate into Kimandatsus lair itself ( by very good luck with their stealth rolls and very bad luck on my own ones ), the Ninja always following Suishens commands to find the missing Amatatsu scion.
Their luck in stealth finally ran out when they entered Kimandatsus room and combat swiftly ensued. Outside the room half the party materialized and caught Goti Runecaster completely with his pants down ( no buff spells cast ), which ended up by him being killed by the two bards ( Ameiko and her sister ) and Spivey. Inside Kimandatsus lair, her and the four Ninjas in her retinue were slowly being wittled down, but she gave as good as she got. Access to her lair was blocked by the Carytid Statues, which had animated as soon as one of the PCs had materialized in front of them... with only one statue even having space to fight at one the same time.
Falk, the archer fighter, had materialized on one of the four ledges above, seeing a great shooting position. Unluckily for him, Kimandatsu had turned herself invisible and taken up position on the ledge opposite to his own and her first shot with her bow was a clean critical hit. She took him down to about 10 hp and the healers ( three in total, the party Cleric, Koya and Spivey ) did not manage to heal him up again fast enough to survive the Cone of Cold, which put him well below into the negative hitpoints to surmount his constitution score.
Akira Saito, the Samurai of the party, also almost died when he got into melee with Kimandatsu, but through his Resolve, he stayed on his feet long enough to give her the finishing blow, unlocking also the first major power of Suishen.
The party now has the enviable task of fighting their way out of the dungeon, instead of into it. The Fugitives Grenadas which they liberated from enemy ninjas really will help them in getting in some rest in the enemy stronghold itself.
Character Name: Istavahn (Ranger 8, 9)
Adventure: Hungry Storm
Location: Anyplace with Katiyana
Catalyst: Poison
Poison spell, failed saves.... yep.. slow painful death. (Died twice!) Once in the storm tower, second in the battle against her in the yeti cave.
Character Name: Ardric (Oracle 8)
Adventure: Hungry Storm
Location: Storm Tower
Catalyst: Katiyana smite!
(Description of battles with Katiyana below)
Character Name: Arceros (Summoner 9)
Adventure: Hungry Storm
Location: Path of the Spirits
Catalyst: Katiyana's Ghost attack!
So... Katiyana was a HUUUGE pain in my party's side as she could (and did..) Sleet storm (thereby blocking all sight, and making difficult terrain on the top floor), followed by channeling negative energy (doesn't matter if she can't see, chances are will hit the party) while the hoarfrost spirits use their heatsense to find their prey (get the invisibility bonuses and try to paralyze folks on the elevator up, only to have it disappear and then fall 200ft to their death).
Only thing that kept the party in the fight was the oracle (deaf, haunted dual curse) casting silence on the summoners eidolon, and having it fly at Katiyana once they weathered the storm. Really took the wind out of her sails.
Oh at the lethality this adventure brings to the fore.... between the shadow/revenant combo with the specters on the side, (got one player -8 levels in one round! and another down to 1 str). And the headless CDG wardens, not to mention the crazy amounts of damage those yeti savages can do with blessing of fervor. Really had my party coming up with all sorts of solutions/combos to try and survive! Between this and night of frozen shadows, their paranoia is off the charts!!!
All this leading towards their exciting stay in Hongal, where they are about to start a rebellion!!
Character Name: Rika Nagato – Human Starsoul Sorcerer 11
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru’s Penance Lv 2
Catalyst: General Debacle
Rika’s latest venture to Pharasma’s realm was the result of the party’s unorthodox method of dealing with the upper levels of The House of Withered Blossoms. Things went as planned until the party got to level three (A8a), where the alchemist decided it would be a great idea to burn down the webs with explosive bombs while slaughtering the 8 araneas. I decided that this would be a great idea, and let them burn down all the webs in the pagoda, resulting in the deaths of the 8 sapphire spiders. Akinosa and his gossamer (and their pet shadows) managed to make it safely to the roof and then to the sides of the tower.
The next day, the party cleared out Munasukaru’s Penance LV 1, and decided to head outside to their camp to rest up and try to remove the spirit of the Ha Jau from the inquisitor. I decided that a very pissed off Akinosa and his crew were staking out the top of the funnel, and proceeded to surprise the party as they climbed up, subduing them easily with a ton of strength damage from shadows and webbing. Akinosa agreed to let the party go to destroy Munasukaru if he could hold their various NPCs hostage, which they agreed to.
The party was feeling some pressure from Akinosa and went down to Munasukaru’s Penance Lv2 early the next morning and still quite weak. They managed to engage the 4 hobgoblin archers from the ledge, the four hobgoblins guarding the gate, and the two water elementals with poor tactics. Rika spent the battle flying around and evoking before being turned into a pincushion by the hobgoblin archers.
The rest of the party managed to clean up and revive her with the seal, which led to…
Character Name: Jira Vorellia – Half-Orc Inquisitor (Preacher) of Cayden Cailean 8 / Samurai (Order of the Star) 3
Adventure: The Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru’s Penance Lv 2
Catalyst: Face-tanking a clay golem
The still weakened party dusted themselves off after the previous disaster and decided to continue without fully healing and encountered the clay golem at the stairs it was guarding. The fight was two brutal rounds. Jira provoked an attack of opportunity and got hit pretty hard before attacking for moderate damage. Then the clay golem took one attack on the Halfling cavalier for moderate damage and took a second attack on Jira, which happened to be a crit. Jira dropped to -30 instantly, but I decided to keep him alive and “cursed” by the golem.
I think Jade as an AP, though lacking feelings, should take that as a compliment. Also great reference, loved playing that game in school way back in the 80's.
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Two more deaths from yesterday's session:
NAME: Valen
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Elf alchemist 6
KILLER: Glacier toad (JR3)
CAUSE: Toad's gotta eat.
AFTERMATH: Unknown, but probably will be returned to life.
NAME: Enzo Vhiski
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Human samurai 2 / rogue 4
KILLER: Gorkuk, Ettin (JR3)
CAUSE: Two unlucky flail smashes against AC 26.
AFTERMATH: Unknown, but probably will be returned to life. If he's smart, Enzo might stay away from creatures with the giant subtype in the future ...
Character Name: Jira Vorellia – Half-Orc Inquisitor (Preacher) of Cayden Cailean 8 / Samurai (Order of the Star) 3
Adventure: The Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru’s Penance Lv 2
Catalyst: Cursed Wounds
Jira, still suffering from the clay golem’s curse in my last post, was pretty close to death as the party dragged him back to their camp outside the House of Withered Blossoms. After a day or two, the party was still having trouble making the caster level check to heal Jira’s cursed wounds and Jira was growing antsy, so the party headed down back down to Munasukaru’s Penance Lv2, where the draw bridge had been raised and the hobgoblin defenders restocked.
The party fought well in the epic battle, using cloudkill to disperse the archers and acid bombs on the chains controlling the drawbridge to lower it. In the end, it came down to an epic melee as the 4 hobgoblins in the gate house and two heavily injured archers from the balcony sallied forth and charged the intrepid heroes. The weakened Jira was cut off from his fellows and cut felled from behind by a cunning hobgoblin. Rika the sorceress was furious, and killed him slowly by sucking the air from his lungs with her call of the void while caving his skull with her metamagic rod.
Character Name: Zych Stormson – Snowcaster Elf Fighter 12
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru’s Penance Lv 2/3
Catalyst: Push Kick
The party hauled Jira’s body back up to the surface and dragged the backup character they met when Jira last died for a long period of time, a elf archer named Zych, down into the depths. The party worked rather well together, with Zych providing some much needed artillery against the hobgoblin hoards. Everything went fairly easily until they reached the drain.
The party only made it 15 feet down the drain when the Sisters of the Broken Path levitated up and attacked. The sisters were very successful in disarming Zych and the Halfling cavalier while the alchemist and sorcerer failed to do much against them due to their high saves and projectile deflection abilities. Eventually, one sister decided to use her punishing kick to push the cavalier off the path down to the water below. The cavalier managed to swim to shore and trigger one of the confusion traps (and roll a natural 20 on the save), but he was too far away to be relevant for the rest of the fight. The sisters kicked the gnome alchemist off next, who was eaten by a giant garr and barely managed to blast his way out of the beast’s stomach. Finally, the last remaining sister kicked Zych off the edge, where he fell to his death.
Zych had never been exposed to the seal and the party lacks the material components to raise him, so the party is planning a burial for their first irreversible death this campaign.
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NAME: Daschel Berryglade
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Halfling Oracle (Life) 6
KILLER: Tunuak, deranged Erutaki shaman (JR3)
CAUSE: Naquun managed to split the group as they filed into Tunuak's bore, and he took on the groups warrior and bard while Tunuak and the four hoarfrost spirits tackled the barbarian, the alchemist, the ranger, and the oracle. Tunuak's unholy blight was brutal, as the PCs failed all eight of their saves against three castings. Even though the spirits only got off one cone of cold before falling, Daschel's healing could not keep up with the area-effect damage. When he ended up paralyzed by a hoarfrost spirit's claw, Tunuak dropped a spiritual weapon on him, and the others were too hard-pressed to rescue him before it crushed his skull a few rounds later.
AFTERMATH: Probably returned to life, but that's going to be tough, because the group just used the Seal and their one remaining scroll of raise dead.
Character Name: Rika Nagato – Human Starsoul Sorcerer 12
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru’s Penance Lv 4
Catalyst: Unlucky Crit / Failure to buff
The party rescued a new aasimar paladin to replace their dead archer and proceeded to steamroll the rest of level 3 without a whole lot of trouble (though the destrachans and their cave-in was a near TPK).
The alchemist used arcane eye to scout ahead to E1 and noticed Jirou and Saburo and the family resemblance to Ichirou. On the way downstairs, the paladin and alchemist buff themselves while Rika… doesn’t. I asked her multiple times, knowing how tough these guys are, but she repeatedly declines. She goes into the fight with only mage armor, dark vision, and overland flight.
On the first round, Rika casts haste and the others move in to triple team Jirou, knocking off 2/3 of his health with smite evil, power attack, and bombs. Saburo felt left out, and went after the lone sorceress, landing an attack for moderate damage.
On the second round, Rika flies away 5 feet and does moderate damage to Saburo. The paladin finishes Jirou while the cavalier moves closer and the alchemist hits Saburo with his new madness bomb. Saburo moves up to Rika and lands a power attack critical hit for max damage of 70, knocking Rika down to around -5. Rika’s player then rolled a natural one on the save vs massive damage. Turns out the blow neatly cut her in half.
Rika’s body is currently in camp under a gentle repose spell while the player rolls up a ranger back-up character.
Total Deaths in Munasukaru’s Penance so far: 5
Character Name: Akira Saito – Human Samurai 7
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Thanelands
Catalyst: Frost Giant On Speed
Pretty much what it says on the can. I rolled up a random encounter for the session and got a Frost Giant with two Hill Giants to back him up, whose loot included a potion of Haste. When the encounter started, with the caravan stretched out along the road, traveling towards the Stormpeak Mountains, the Frost Giant very visibly gobbled down the Haste potion and ran, unnnaturally fast, towards the caravan. Akira chose to charge the Frost Giant on his horse, getting hit with an AoO, missing with his one attack and exposing himself to a full-attack by the hasted giant. And that's all she wrote. The player decided that he had enough of the character and I'll see what he has come up with today in the evening.
Character Name: Fidget Mvashti – Adopted Gnome Alchemist 9
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Uqtaal Necropolis
Catalyst: Headless Paralysis Monsters!
Fidget and her sister Nyx were scouting out the first hall in the Necropolis when she walked face first into the anti-life shield near the bridge.
The ensuing commotion alerted the headless guards who proceeded to shamble out and nearly scare the two Gnomes to death. They yelled out for help from their allies who quickly moved up to join the battle but could not fight off the horrific fear that tugged at their senses at the sight of the ghostly figures swirling about the headless creatures and both Gnomes soon found themselves paralyzed.
The Cavalier valiantly rode to their aid, bull-rushing the nearest one clear of Nyx to prevent a deadly blow, but fidget was caught, grabbed and eventually killed in the ensuing desperate melee.
Fortunately she was free of the mummy rot, so her body was brought back using the seal while the caravan desperately licked their wounds and considered what the heck had just happened.
Seems The Hungry Storm is a bit deadlier than I expected, with the constant death via paralysis monsters. ^^
Yeah,
I have two groups, so my deaths totals may be slightly more exaggerated than others in this thread, but so far I've lost 3 people to paralysis related deaths(2 PC's 1 NPC).
After the above groups session last night, the rogue got dropped to 2 strength by Ivol (Greater Shadow) before they could manage to finish her off. This group struggles with incorporeal things, so I'm particularly worried about big K coming up later for them with all her flyby attack shenanigans she is capable of.
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Character Name: Fidget Mvashti – Adopted Gnome Alchemist 9
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Uqtaal Necropolis
Catalyst: Headless Paralysis Monsters!Fidget and her sister Nyx were scouting out the first hall in the Necropolis when she walked face first into the anti-life shield near the bridge.
The ensuing commotion alerted the headless guards who proceeded to shamble out and nearly scare the two Gnomes to death. They yelled out for help from their allies who quickly moved up to join the battle but could not fight off the horrific fear that tugged at their senses at the sight of the ghostly figures swirling about the headless creatures and both Gnomes soon found themselves paralyzed.
The Cavalier valiantly rode to their aid, bull-rushing the nearest one clear of Nyx to prevent a deadly blow, but fidget was caught, grabbed and eventually killed in the ensuing desperate melee.
Fortunately she was free of the mummy rot, so her body was brought back using the seal while the caravan desperately licked their wounds and considered what the heck had just happened.
still wondering how to run these encounters without the caravan rules.
Yeah,
I have two groups, so my deaths totals may be slightly more exaggerated than others in this thread, but so far I've lost 3 people to paralysis related deaths(2 PC's 1 NPC).
After the above groups session last night, the rogue got dropped to 2 strength by Ivol (Greater Shadow) before they could manage to finish her off. This group struggles with incorporeal things, so I'm particularly worried about big K coming up later for them with all her flyby attack shenanigans she is capable of.
Well, I'm up to 5 deaths total in two groups over the first two modules ( the fifth one is a random encounter on the way to start module three ), so I'd say the AP is coming along very well in that regard. :p
still wondering how to run these encounters without the caravan rules.
Well, personally I simply convert the combat encounters to appropiate "normal" encounters. Security checks get converted into combined Survival checks ( i.e. one character does the main check and competent hero characters assist vs. a DC which must be appropiate to the particular group ) and I just waive encounters with Resolve checks. I keep caravan HP to track what environmental damage does to the caravan.
Character Name: Sirona – Life Oracle level 6
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Ravenscraeg
Catalyst: Poison
A certain monk / ninja attacked the spellcaster first (as in her suggested tactics) using some very expensive poison with a one-minute onset time. The party used up most of their anti-poison and lesser restoration potions on another PC who had been hit by Deathblade poison in the same battle. Then the minute ran out and the 1d6 Con damage every round quickly reduced her fortitude save to the point where saving was almost impossible.
Brought back to life by the rest of the party using the Amatatsu seal (while hiding in the extradimensional space from a fugitive grenade in the hope that this would fool enemy scryers).
Character Name: Titos - "ninja" 12
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Namidakame Lagoon, barge
Catalyst: Critical hit with spear (massive damage)
Adventurers arrived to Namidakame Lagoon and after meeting Numataro-sama they build a raft to sail to the island. At the shore they faced onis disguised as humans. Titos moved to the barge using light steps to divide enemy force and got two oni's against himself. Other missed but other landed a hit that critted. Normally Titos would have used Crane Wing to deflect the attack but after using light steps it wasn't possible. Attacks was just over 50 points so it was massive damage. Player needed 9 from his roll, rolled 7. So first dead PC in this AP for me.
Needles to say, other heroes wiped the floor with onis (it was tough match but our samurai is crazy combatant). They were saddened with their loss and they asked help from Numataro-sama who had resurrection for them. Ameiko and other heroes were delighted to see Titos alive again.
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Okay, it's starting to get ridiculous. This is five deaths in the last three sessions.
NAME: Valen
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Elf alchemist (cryptbreaker) 7
KILLER: Vegsundvaag, enraged white dragon
CAUSE: Provoking an AoO to throw a fire-bomb, after a 5-foot step, so staying close enough for the dragon to 5-foot step and full attack. Secondary causes: Having an AC of only 17, and forgetting to throw up false life for a fight with plenty of time to buff.
NAME: Tauredil
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Half-elf ranger (skirmisher) 7
KILLER: Frostfallen mammoth
CAUSE: An obsession of the player's for being within point-blank range. He repeatedly gave up full attacks of three shots (each at +15 to hit, +15 to damage, including Bard Song and Favored Enemy (undead) +4) in favored of getting one shot at +16 to hit and +16 damage. Weirdest tactical blind-spot I've ever seen. (We've all tried to explain to him, multiple times, why getting to point-blank range isn't always the best thing to do, but he just can't see it.) Anyway, 20 feet away from a frostfallen mammoth is not where you want to be if you can possibly help it.
Okay, it's starting to get ridiculous. This is five deaths in the last three sessions.
Some say ridiculous, some say entertaining ... ;) I say keep it up as long as they'll let you!
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Holy ... ! Vegsundvaag heard them from 300 feet away?
(I don't wanna stir up anything, but did you remember the -30 to her Perception checks? In my game, she rolled fairly high, but still didn't hear them until they entered her cave. It's certainly possible that she rolled very high and they rolled very low, of course, but it would be pretty bad luck.
BTW, in a nod to Ye Olde Classic AD&D, I rolled for a 1-in-6 chance she was sleeping (thus taking another -10 to Perception). She wasn't.
Oh, and in my game she also picked the target she killed because he was wielding fire. And was stupid enough to stay in full-attack range.)
I'll be surprised if Veggi manages to do so much damage even in rounds where she gets full attacks vs my first group, I have a record of rolling abysmally low on such encounters. Hell, I'm even thinking about aging her up a bit, because I have six players and most of the time all the NPCs accompany them.
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I'll be surprised if Veggi manages to do so much damage even in rounds where she gets full attacks vs my first group, I have a record of rolling abysmally low on such encounters. Hell, I'm even thinking about aging her up a bit, because I have six players and most of the time all the NPCs accompany them.
I'd suspect you'd be better off buffing her defensively rather than offensively so as to avoid nasty one shot kills. Say Max HP, and an extra standard action at initiative -10.
Aging her up one age category takes care of most problems. Adding an extra action would probably be too much, as an breath attack while full attacking would ensure one dead PC.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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Yeah, if you've got 6 PCs I think an age-up is entirely appropriate. It increases her marginal combat power across the board without over-tipping it in any one spot.
Adding one level also gets her spells at Adult, plus cold aura, plus frightful presence. That's a pretty big boost, but they have enough extra characters that it should balance out. I'd suggest not stacking shield and mage armor as 2 of her spells, as I think +8 to AC would just be too much, unless you've got a buttload of touch-AC attackers in your party.
The archer has excellent to-hit numbers and I got a junior Eldritch Knight who can do some stuff in that direction, but the rest rely on normal to-hit stuff. I'll keep it to Shield, that should be enough to make them sweat. :)
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Yeah, if you've got 6 PCs I think an age-up is entirely appropriate. It increases her marginal combat power across the board without over-tipping it in any one spot.
Except that she would get the fear aura. I strongly considered bumping her up to Adult (I also have a group of six), but the highest Will save in my group is +7, so the fear aura would, IMO, have had a better-then-even chance of producing a TPK.
As it was, her Flyby Attack, burrowing, and fog clouds made it a good, tense, fight that did produce a fatality. ("Flawless victory!")