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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.
Did any PCs seriously go into the known lair of a white dragon without resist cold or protection from cold?
I enjoyed this encounter, so if folks want to discuss it, I'm all for it, but we should probably start a separate thread. I apologize for cluttering the Obituaries thread.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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One last threadjack and then I'll go back to gloating at the death tolls:
Remember that frightful presence only actually frightens creatures under 5 HD. PCs that fail saves would only be shaken, and by 7th-ish level your PCs should have plenty of ways to counter that condition. Even without it, it's not a killer of a condition.
Hi it's me again..
Character Name: Halla Sigrundidottir - savage skald bard 12
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Shadow Maze
Catalyst: Epic battle against Shosaito
After facing the horrors of the Shadow Maze heroes faced Shosaito, the evil wizard. After beating this minions, they very pretty beat up and Shosaito didn't show I sign of fatigue or fear even when facing three heroes and Ameiko alone. After using waves of exhaustion Shosaito casted chain lightning and Halla was only to fail her save against it. She was dead before she hit the floor. Evil wizard let out mad and mocking laughter.
Still, wizard was beaten by samurai of our group and they paid Numataro-sama to cast raise dead on Halla. She was happy to return to continue their mission.
Two sessions, two dead characters. My players joked about going for "three sessions, three dead characters" achievement as now I'm very close to it. Sadly the samurai is pretty hard to knock down but only time will tell if I can do that.
Character Name: Skizzik Winx – Gnome Alchemist 13
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: The Hotel Common Room
Catalyst: Kaibuninsho
The PCs took over the fortress in part one and decided to enlist the help of the geisha first, hoping to get some financing to bribe the ninja clans. They arrived in Sakakabe without incident and used diplomacy to get a meeting with O-Kohaku the next night. They explored the city, got rooms at the inn, and took in a play before turning in for the night. While they were exploring town, Kaibuninsho arranged to be in the same place several times in his monk disguise. The party was suspicious and attempted to interrogate him, but he refused to speak and they rolled terribly on sense motive.
The party arrived back at their inn late after taking in a play, and everyone went to bed except for the inquisitor and Skizzik, who accepted the inn keeper’s son’s offer of tea. Little did they know that Kaibuninsho had followed them to their inn earlier and snuck in later that night. Kaibuninsho murdered the innkeeper’s son and disguised himself to await the return of the party. After the inquisitor passed his fort save on the tea laced with oil of taggit (knockout poison) he went to bed and left Skizzik alone with the disguised assassin. The assassin made small talk while studying his target, then won initiative over the suspicious gnome and tried to assassinate him with a poised shuriken. Skizzik rolled a natural one on his fort save and died instantly from a shuriken to the windpipe.
Kaibuninsho dragged the innkeeper’s son into the common room with Skizzik's body and snuck away. The party was completely oblivious until the innkeeper found the bodies later that night and screamed his head off. They managed to raise him with the seal a few days later, but they are paranoid about being alone now.
Character: Briannor
Adventure: NoFS
Where: On the shore after kayak lessons
Catalyst: Shark Eating Crab
The shark-eating crab emerged from the waters and promptly picked up the elven rogue for a snack. Dead after 2 rounds of damage.
Character: Briannor
Adventure: NoFS
Where: On the shore after kayak lessons
Catalyst: Shark Eating CrabThe shark-eating crab emerged from the waters and promptly picked up the elven rogue for a snack. Dead after 2 rounds of damage.
Nothing says "fun" like "omnomnomnom". ^______^
Kind of like that Deep Water scene with Sam Jackson.
Oregon Trail and Jade Regent are kith and kin sir. At a river ford you are going to lose supplies and your wife or child will drown. Running first JR with 7 char party. No good kills besides a dire ferret animal companion. Raised from the dead by the sacrifice of material wealth at Spivey's Shire. Hope big Kim and her two new (classed goblin) NPC friends will change that, as its long past time for the PC's to use the wonder box.
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Character Name: Larvonass Tolian
Character Bio: Female Tiefling Witch 11
Adventure: The Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru's Penance
Catalyst: The full attacks of a dual-wielder are painful.
What happened:
After a surprisingly intense battle with Fujai, the first of Munasukaru's chosen, Fujai was hit by a well aimed crossbow bolt from the group's dwarven crossbow fighter and knocked almost to defeat. Unfortunately Fujai had enough left in him to unleash one last challenge-boosted full attack, and landed every hit, dealing about 65 damage to Larvonass and knocking her to -25 on the spot, killing her.
Fortunately the group's alchemist was a Chirurgeon, and had Breath of Life prepared. He got to Larvonass within one round and managed to heal back a good 35 hit points, saving her life as Ameiko vengefully killed Fujai.
This situation holds a prestigious position as probably the least-inglorious death this group has had so far in Jade Regent. Being killed by the last stand of a powerful dying samurai and forcing him to land every hit to necessitate killing you is a lot better than being eaten by a fish (how the alchemist died earlier), or having your head ripped clean off by a frost worm (being how Ameiko herself died earlier)
Character name : Tarence - Human Paladin 3
Adventure : Brinewall Legacy
Location : Brinewall Keep
Catalyst : Belostomatid "Giant Toe-Biter"
They walked into the courtyard with the pool of water, the belostomatid emerged looking for a treat. The paladin confronts the insect and gets bitten for his efforts, fails his saving throw and becomes paralyzed. The insect realizing it's dinner is now helpless (feeding time) begins to eat him. Coup de grace... The monk misses his attack of opportunity and the paladin dies. The insect is killed the subsequent round.
Paladin PC ran Scribbleface the rest of the module till they found the seal and his corpse was returned to life.
Character name : Sferot- Half-Elf, Ulfen Barbarian drunken brute 4
Adventure : Night of the Frozen Shadows
Location : Ravenscraieg
Catalyst : Trolls
Group walked into the coal oven area and tried to bluff the trolls. Rolled a 1. Trolls attacked. Barbarian was down to five hp. Troll full attacked, all attacks were successfull and the rend got him, I vividly described the skin being completely ripped from his body, exposing his skull to the coal dust cavern.
The truth is, if you forget to level your character up thats your fault not the GM's.
Character Name: Ardric (Oracle 12)
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Enganoka
Catalyst: Fortune telling hurts!
Kabunaishinso partook in his fortune telling disguise luring two of the party members to his stall, after some drugged tea (and a nat 2 on the save!) a sleeping member was assassinated (and starting another round of doppelganger/disguise paranoia). After a small scuffle he ended up shadow walking into the floor (yay Fuhonsen!)
Character Name: Ardric (Oracle 12)
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Enganoka
Catalyst: Round 2, hurts even more
After getting ressurected (via the seal), the party decides to scry/fry. Using the flawed crystal ball (from book IV) they spend the hour to find Kabu eating a fine lunch somewhere, as he notices the sensor he motions for the party to 'bring it', which sends them in a flurry to start buffing. After round three he decides he has had enough of it and dimension doors away (#1) , now they both start scrying again (Yay fuhonsen). As both scryers locate each other.. its a battle of initative!! Kabu wins, dimension doors to the party and stealths.
Comes out of hiding and proceeds to full round sneak attack the oracle, who goes down in a flurry of shurikens before being disintegrated into dust by the wizard (natural 20 hit and confirm for 180 dmg!!!).
Now the party is terrified of ninja's... and even more so of the Fuhonsen (which has been described to them as trying to put 150% ninja in a person, it's just TOO MUCH NINJA for one person to handle!!)
Character Name: Virkhus (Paladin 12)
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Shinju-no Ie
Catalyst: Strength Drain for everyone!!
Character Name: Kuyo Yama (Wizard 12)
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Shinju-no Ie
Catalyst: Strength Drain for everyone!!
Character Name: Virkhus (Cavalier 12)
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Shinju-no Ie
Catalyst: Fiendish Dire tiger!!
They did not fight anything in the manor house (which probably would have drained enough resources to TPK) as they used the tunnel from the lacedon village to traverse to the maze.
After trudging through the shadow maze, the party was suffering the following,
Paladin -2 levels
Cavalier -2 levels
Wizard -3 Con
Oracle - 2 levels (Thanks Kabunaishinsho!!)
The only triggered the first trap before catching onto the inro.
Enter the nue, pouncing and biting the paladin (-2 levels), and poisoning the wizard (-1 str). Sir Virkhus responded in kind by smiting and full rounding the beast, dropping it to 50hp before slinking away (it went 2nd on initative used surprise round to pounce charge).
Keen on not letting the creature escape the cavalier cut through the wall, discovering that the nue had managed to drip its ichory blood through a secret door!! Meanwhile the wizard starts to succumb to the str poison and fails on a neutralize poison scroll while the oracle hands him a potion of delay poison.
Chasing once more the Paladin ends up in the hallway and exchanges verbal barbs with Shosaito and combat ensues once more!! After throwing the pearls to the ground (by the way this was AWESSOME, had my party screaming how much they hated this guy), the paladin charged through only to be stopped by the trustworthy nue's readied pounce!! Another 2 negative levels (Paladin at -6!!) the nue was felled by the retalitory crit. Unfortunately the shadows then came to life and flanked our poor paladin giving him 5 str dmg.
Cavalier carefully strides into the room (to avoid crushing a soul-pearl) and tries to lay waste with a lance (hitting once). Wizard and Oracle try to deal with the two women's bodies but end up heading towards the fray as they hear their comrades cry out.
Next round, Shosaito delivers a ray of enfeeblement, (paladin saved for half) to drop him low enough for another 11 points of str dmg to slay the paladin out right!!) (roll to raise him in two rounds as a greater shadow (no adv template)
The wizard mage-steps in to deliver a nasty distingrate (it has killed one boss before!!) with another nat 20!! only to be beaten by the displacement! (WOO!!!!!) The cavalier proceeds to full round the shadow that slew his comrade but the level drain and poor rolls take their toll. Oracle flies over and starts buffing the party.
Soon rising as a shadow they now focus on the wizard, who weakened from the nue poison (-5 str) took 15 points from two fly by attacks and the paladin has the wizard join him in shadow fun!
With the combatants lowered down to two vs wizard +2 shadows it becomes a test of spells as the cavalier fights the shadows with the life elemental oracle casting heals to keep the str dmg away. Shosaito manages to summon a fiendish dire tiger to pounce/rend/rake the Cavalier while the oracle counters with celestial dire lions.
While he is able to slay the shadows, the tiger's smite damage is too much and he is rended limb from limb staining the room in splotches of gray (and nice cinematic of covering the pearls into blood gems!!)
Now out of spells, Shosaito laughs as the lions tear into his old flesh taunting the oracle that he has already won....
The poor oracle (who has deaf/haunted dual curse, doesn't have any of the local languages) is left as the sole survivor and is stumped at what to do with the bodies of everyone around him and trying to get the barge to take him home...
Would've been a TPK, but the oracle nat 20'd the finger of death :(.
Paladin -2 levels Cavalier -2 levels Wizard -3 Con Oracle - 2 levels
That's why I always carry scrolls of Restoration...
In my own game:
Megumi, Level 9 female Fetchling Ninja.
The Hungry Storm.
Killed by: Headless mummies.
Opened a door that triggered two headless mummies. Was paralyzed by aura of despair. Was rescued by 'Remove Paralysis' cast by oracle ally.
After the group defeated them, Megumi opened the similar door opposite, triggering two more mummies. Got paralyzed again. (Low wisdom.) The rest of the group neither cast Remove Paralysis nor did a good job of protecting her. After a couple of rounds of fighting, one of the mummies was standing next to her. I got out a d6 and announced that on a 1-3, it would perform a coup de grace. On a 4-6, it would attack the magus instead.
I rolled a 3 and Megumi got a mummy fist through the torso.
Was raised by the Amatatsu seal, but still has mummy rot.
Character name : Trayton - Elf Witch 4
Adventure : Night of Frozen Shadows
Location : Rondom Inn
Catalyst : The party decided to rent out the entire inn and ambush whoever was shadowing them and killing off unimportant NPCs
They were unsuccessful goading their shadows the first night but on the second night at the inn 4 tengu ninja (lvl 4) decided to pay them a visit. They decided to lay low in the common room with the Catfolk ranger on watch. I allowed the ranger to spot doors seemingly opening on their own and give warning to the party (avoid a TPK).
The witch heard the warning and awoke. (I rule that awakened PCs are staggered on their first round allowing only one move or standard action) He decided to stand up giving his invisible assailants a nice squishy target. He was hit with three Deathblade poisoned darts and he subsequently failed every DC 24 fortitude save. (Deathblade DC 20 +4 for the additional two doses and the duration extended to 12 rounds) He collapsed dead at the feet of the oracle as combat was drawing to a close.
My party has 6 PCs and their level is a little higher than the module calls for so I don't pull too many punches. The next morning he received a Resurrection from the Seal so it's powers are dormant for the next 28 days. (4 week recharge for the 1/month ability of the Seal) Now all of the players are worried about ninjas and poison. Muahahaha!
He should have only had to make one save at DC 24, not three.
True. While poison DCs do stack, you only get damaged once.
He should have only had to make one save at DC 24, not three.
No, it sounds like he did it right--one save for each initial hit with the poison, but then only a single ongoing save each round.
He should have only had to make one save at DC 24, not three.No, it sounds like he did it right--one save for each initial hit with the poison, but then only a single ongoing save each round.
Hrm .... way I'm used to playing it is the doses for (x) poison received in the same round are saved for once (plus ongoing nastiness). Mainly due to being lazy and not wanting to have some one wasting even more time throwing three seperate saves.
However, if I've been doing it wrong ... well, things get nasty in a hurry that way. ^______^
EDIT: in the case of three injury poisons, shouldn't the initial saves all be at the normal save DC instead of the amplified DC? Otherwise, I see it as being Too Much.
He should have only had to make one save at DC 24, not three.No, it sounds like he did it right--one save for each initial hit with the poison, but then only a single ongoing save each round.Hrm .... way I'm used to playing it is the doses for (x) poison received in the same round are saved for once (plus ongoing nastiness). Mainly due to being lazy and not wanting to have some one wasting even more time throwing three seperate saves.
However, if I've been doing it wrong ... well, things get nasty in a hurry that way. ^______^
EDIT: in the case of three injury poisons, shouldn't the initial saves all be at the normal save DC instead of the amplified DC? Otherwise, I see it as being Too Much.
Jason Bulmahn has a blog you can search for about this. Here's how it works. Each injury gives an initial save. If you make it, you're done with that particular dose poison (even if it's deathblade which usually requires two saves). If you fail, you take the damage and it's in your system, raising all DCs vs that poison by 2, including other initial injuries. This continues for every injury. Then on your own turn, you make one save only, at the base DC + 2 for every additional poison. These saves count towards removal (either 1 save or 2 consecutive of the on-your-own-turn saves are usually needed to remove the poison, including lowering the DC back to the minimum) Yes, this is nasty, but poison is supposed to be a deadly tactic if you're willing to spend the money, to give meaning to a paladin's vow not to use such underhanded means.
Jason Bulmahn has a blog you can search for about this. Here's how it works. Each injury gives an initial save. If you make it, you're done with that particular dose poison (even if it's deathblade which usually requires two saves). If you fail, you take the damage and it's in your system, raising all DCs vs that poison by 2, including other initial injuries. This continues for every injury. Then on your own turn, you make one save only, at the base DC + 2 for every additional poison. These saves count towards removal (either 1 save or 2 consecutive of the on-your-own-turn saves are usually needed to remove the poison, including lowering the DC back to the minimum) Yes, this is nasty, but poison is supposed to be a deadly tactic if you're willing to spend the money, to give meaning to a paladin's vow not to use such underhanded means.He should have only had to make one save at DC 24, not three.No, it sounds like he did it right--one save for each initial hit with the poison, but then only a single ongoing save each round.Hrm .... way I'm used to playing it is the doses for (x) poison received in the same round are saved for once (plus ongoing nastiness). Mainly due to being lazy and not wanting to have some one wasting even more time throwing three seperate saves.
However, if I've been doing it wrong ... well, things get nasty in a hurry that way. ^______^
EDIT: in the case of three injury poisons, shouldn't the initial saves all be at the normal save DC instead of the amplified DC? Otherwise, I see it as being Too Much.
Cool, so the poor guy who died failed 3 DC 20 saves, dying outright. Nasty and oh so effective. :)
I wasn't very clear. Sorry.
We go with the "he got hit by 3 attacks with poison so only 1 save at DC 24" way of doing it. When I said he failed all of his subsequent saves I meant that he failed each round (total duration of the poison being 12 rounds) and he died. I think he died at the end of his 5th round.
Yep, that happened to a witch PC in my second JR campaign, too, although one dose sufficed for that. ^^
OMG at the island of death in book 6, between the greater shadows the grave warden and the harm trap (with the rokurokubi feebleminding away from the group) how do you not TPK??
Will add the first party members death, but with Kiyomi leading the party (with her bluff of +26 without even using a good glibness/etc, and I'm amazed she doesn't have some sort of spell to cloak her alignment..) to the guardian (and letting them get mauled by the shadows) I had to hold back from murdering them all outright!! (She dispelled their deathwards, even though for some reason she has NO spellcraft being a sorcerer!!!)
Awesome blow + Harm trap = WIN! or Charm Monster and have the ally (go fetch help across the island) into the harm trap is just nasty (but fun for the GM!)
It's a high level party, TPKs happen to monster groups, not to player characters anymore. Given the advantages of the action economy and that every player character at this level is an engine of destruction, it is pretty clear that that advantage will always lie with the PC's.
Since apparently parties are living too much, I'll add some more deaths to the total!!
Character Name: Kuyo Yama (Wizard 13)
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Well of Demons
Catalyst: Finger of Death!
As they took the boat ride (yay more $$) to the north eastern section, the Paladin dueled the graveknight to death (So... hard to beat smite, also apparently the graveknight has critical focus but not improved critical for his katana (or once again my eyes are playing tricks on me)!!) walking into the next room only the oracle is not surprised (blasted blindsight!) as the nightwing descends from the cavern with a deeper darkness!!
The oracle of life counters with his own daylight, and then the wizard unleashes a mighty disintegrate (the downfall of almost all my npc's, blasted ill omen, misfortune, save vs death combo!) at the undead monstrosity only to roll a nat 2 on the spell pen. Realizing the danger the Nightwing counters with a FoD, and the wizard is no more!! The paladin avenges him by smiting the nightwing and rolling a crit, it never stood a chance..
Character Name: Kuyo Yama (Wizard 13)
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Well of Demons
Catalyst: Disintegrate
Character Name: Ardric (Oracle 13)
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Well of Demons
Catalyst: Disintegrate 2! Electric Boogaloo!
The party counters with a prismatic spray from the wizard (rolled a 1 so 10 fire dmg (after incorporeal)) and a silence on the paladin as the cavalier/paladin drink their potions of fly. Wanting to put an end to the wizard's antics, a disintegrate is thrown and the wizard (even after misofortune reroll) misses the save by two and is turned to dust!!) followed by a quickened dispel magic on the oracle's deathward.
Using his remaining two level 7 spell slots he quicken dispel magics the deathward on the cavalier and throws another finger of death! A NAT 1!! (Game is paused as the GM dances around the room, only to be spoilt by the cavalier announcing he is still alive, albeit dying) (I blame myself not throwing a quicken magic missle first round!) As the paladin destroys the ghost (who taunts that he will be baaaaacckkkk!) the dust that remains of his comrades is poured into flasks, and Emperor Shigure's body is thrown into the portable hole as the two valiant warriors make their escape!!
Many thanks Neil for writing this one, First rounds is on me at Paizocon!! (Unfortunately the party members that are coming with me... will probably be less forthcoming with the free drinks!!)
So far I think the party is averaging four to five deaths a book.... not bad.
Character Name: Rika Nagato – Human Starsoul Sorcerer 13
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Kasai Docks
Catalyst: Staying in Melee
The party decided to contact the local criminal element to aid there entrance into the city. They went to a nearby town, arranged a private meeting with the man in charge, and used dominate person on him to arrange passage on a ship bound for Kasai. The criminals loosely packed them into shipping crates rigged so that they could be opened from the inside and loaded them on a small boat.
Things went according to plan until they docked in Kasai, where one of the ogre mage inquisitors and 4 of his flunkies boarded the boat to search it after claiming to be customs officials. The party flubbed their stealth checks and popped out of their crates to attack before the oni could get organized.
The fight was going well until the alchemist decided to throw an explosive bomb at the ogre mage inquisitor , which ignited the pitch in the hull of the ship and the ogre mage. The ogre mage made a beastly strength check to kick down the burning section of the boat’s hull, flooding the boat and putting out the flames that were ravaging him. The ogre mage then decided to fly out the breach in the hull and wait.
The party managed to clean out the rest of the enemies and escape up the stairs to the deck of the ship and across the gangplank to the dock except for Rika, who decided to fly out of the breach in the hull. The ogre mage flew closer and took a chunk out of her with his human bane ability activated on its turn for moderate damage. On her turn, Rika decided to step back and attempt to disintegrate the ogre mage rather than retreat. She managed to hit the monster, but it easily passed its save, and full attacked her to death on its turn. The rest of the party killed the ogre mage and fished her body out of the harbor before beating a hasty retreat from the local authorities.
Character Name: Nyx M'vashti (Gnome Rogue(Acrobat) 11)
Adventure: Forrest of Spirits
Location: Foyer before the Iron Lattice.
Catalyst: Nodachi Crit from Ichiro against the prone rogue.
My second group went for a deep infiltration attempt after scouting out the first level of the Penance with Arcane Eye and deciding they would rather have a surgical strike against Munasukaru than attempting to fight their way through all the Hobgoblin defenders so they Dimensional Door'ed from the Mouth to the hallway near the waterfall at the start of the second area, declaring this their 'point of no return'.
They invis up, and fly/airwalk into the top of the large tower, nearly silently eliminating the 4 guards stationed there before one manages to shout out an alarm, alerting the lepers and the guards downstairs. The guards downstairs are walled off from entering combat for a few rounds by a wall of force, causing them to go back downstairs and start to lower the bridge and send people to pull reinforcements via buto.
The last surviving hobgoblin leper falls back and warns the Sisters, and Ichirou. A bit of trash talk passes between Ichirou and the parties Cavalier while the groups start to square off. The Party did not want to fight above the Gorgon pit so they stalled until Ichirou called for the Sisters to attack.
Ichirou buffed and joined combat on the second round after the cavalier was disarmed in the initial round. Nyx was slightly out of position and gets surrounded by a group of monks and gets knocked prone with a punishing kick. Ichirou joins in at this point and charges in to attack the prone gnome hitting her for some respectable numbers. On Nyx's next turn, she attempts to stand up and takes a crit for 64 off the attack of opportunity, which is enough to send her straight to dead.
Ichirou taunts them all for being weak, only to nearly be bombed to oblivion by Nyx's sister, the alchemist. Afterwards he falls back to recover, telling the 'Sisters' to finish up with the weaklings.
The struggling party almost loses the sorcerer as well before he could be brought back to consciousness as the monks are finally dealt with. Afterwards they gather their fallen comrade and fall back to the mouth with another Dimensional Door.
The party uses the seal to bring back their fallen ally, but they are now worried about what else waits for them below. They have officially gone back into planning stage.
Character Name: Rocky (Rock Construct)
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Standing near the waterfall near the 'Mockery Pagoda'
Catalyst: Two Water Elementals showing him why the mountain bows to the river.
Rocky was a construct my first group's Dwarven Sorcerer has created. Basically an animate statue of sorts that generally grabs and pounds most things at the Sorcerer's bidding.
Rocky was performing his 'mobile cover' duty vs some ranged Hobgoblins when he walked up to the edge of rushing river, triggering the dormant water elementals who sprung into action delivering a massive power attack crit and a normal slam, leaving poor rocky a soggy pile of shattered stones.
In a dramatic reversal after the tragic shattering of Rocky, the Dwarven sorcerer removed the drums of panic from his haversack and began drumming, sending most everything that was attacking the party fleeing in panic. (These Hobgoblin warriors are super-weak on will saves!)
Just for a little context, in which of the two groups is Mikaze's half-orc?
The one with Rocky, they are unceremoniously dubbed 'group one' and my wife and her friends are 'group two'.
Mikaze's group:
Auskrim - Half-Orc Barbarian
Winter - Dwarven Deep Earth Sorcerer
Milmer - Halfling Bard/Ranger
Kal - Elf Magus(Kensai)
Poor Mikaze(Auskrim, Barbarian with a heart of gold). Book 4 has been hard on him! He has some tough decisions ahead of him.
Yeah, I've seen him ponder the dilemma he is facing. Well, aside from my guys not being *that* much into redemptive themes ( although one group is really rather about leaving people alive than wiping out every bad guy ), I completely exchanged that dungeon for the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. Can't stand another mega-dungeon.
The roleplaying in Ordu-Aganhei and now in the tournament has been extremely nice and much of the rest of the AP looks like it will have very heavy elements of RP. I'll need to re-work most of the last module, though, I hate the short time-frame it has.
Heh, I have faith you will pull it off well. I even read over the Ruby Phoenix tournament and considered it myself but ultimately decided against it in order to use the Penance to serve as a good example of just how bad the bad guys are. I'm playing up that portion of it by being as explicit and gruesome as I can muster when describing the various atrocities encountered and if anything my players have reacted with a proper degree of disgust and motivation.
That said, the mega-dungeon is rather 'mega' at the very least. I'm a strong supporter of 'Enemies' don't just sit in their rooms and wait to be killed. So a lot of encounters have turned into big massive running battles so far. I've been trying to milk as much flavor out of it as I can, and I don't feel like it has been the 'grind' that Castle Scarwall was for us in Crimson Throne.
Mikaze's group is a bit more direct in their approach, literally fighting their way tooth and nail between the levels, but my second group is trying to be a bit more covert and attempt to 'assassinate' the Oni presence with precision strikes guided by divination, then sweep in with the assembled mass of Kami and clean out the rest of the rabble after the final Oni falls. They also did not immediately 'go to war' with the spiders up top, begrudgingly allying with Akinosa for the time being.
It's always nice to see how different groups do things in their own way. :)
Aside from the length of the thing, I took one look at the monster composition and found it horrible. Spiders up top, then hobgoblins and oni. And oni-hobgoblins. Urk. Sprinkle a few mounts and some really strangely placed monsters in-between and I felt completely demotivated. Oh, well, the tournament is turning out excellently so far.
Character: Abney. Level 11 gnome sorcerer / bloatmage.
Location: Interminable dungeon
Direct cause: Destrachans
Indirect cause: Allies with high AC
After fireballing his way across the Crown of the World, he started experiencing a run of bad luck. Driven to fight his own animal companion by a confusion trap, petrified by a gorgon, and then stunned by a sonic pain attack.
That Destrachan encounter is incredibly dangerous compared to all those hobgoblins. They can do 32d6 damage to the entire group in one round (enough to kill a PC in one to two rounds depending on how many reflex saves they pass), or they can do less damage but stun half the group. And that's without cave-ins.
I know they're supposed to use melee attacks on stunned opponents but when the front-liners have insane ACs and stoneskin, it really doesn't make much sense for them to keep on doing it.
Character Names: Skizzik Winx – Gnome Alchemist 14
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Catalyst: Amatatsu Maemi
Character Names: Jira Vorellia – Half-Orc Inquisitor (Preacher) of Cayden Cailean 8 / Samurai (Order of the Star) 6
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Catalyst: Amatatsu Maemi
Character Names: Rika Nagato – Human Starsoul Sorcerer 14
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Catalyst: Amatatsu Maemi
Character Names: Thom Suresaddle – Halfling Gendarme Cavalier 14
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Catalyst: Amatatsu Maemi
The party had a very tough time in the Well of Demons with the Omox demons, and survived Teikoku Sokai by the skin of their teeth. They then headed over to the devil part of the dungeon, where they were having a fairly easy time. The shiko me assassin rolled a natural 1 on her death attack before losing initiative and being debuffed into uselessness, while the erinyes were thoroughly smashed after doing minor damage. Three of the erinyes teleported over to warn Amatatsu Maemi with less than half health. All in all, things were going fairly smoothly up until the TPK.
The party decides not to buff or heal from the last fight, and presses on at breakneck pace. Everyone but the Cavalier has a means of flight, and flies up to Maemi’s balcony while the cavalier begins climbing. The flyers land on the balcony and chat, politely ignoring Maemi’s tentacles. Deciding that they don’t want to introduce Ameiko to her ancestor, the party attacks and things go south. Maemi wins initiative and launches black tentacles that manage to grapple everyone except for the cavalier, who is still climbing up to the platform. Sadly, no one would be able to escape the black tentacles for the entirety of the fight. The two advanced erinyes and the three survivors from before take to the air and begin raining arrows down on the party. The alchemist throws some acid bombs for minor damage to Maemi and the rest of the party is generally useless.
Maemi decides that the sorceress is the greatest threat, and grapples her, eventually forcing her into the tentacle cage. The cavalier finally makes it up to the balcony and pulls his lance to try and poke Maemi to death. At this point I bent the rules and allowed the Inquisitor/Samurai to pull his naganata and use it while grappled, as this fight was going south quickly. Maemi kills the sorceress with her tentacle cage just before being killed by a 4x crit from the naganata wielding Samurai/Inquisitor. The infuriated erinyes continue to rain down arrows on the party, and manage to kill the cavalier, followed by the other two.
Character: Ryker-Thane. Level 11 strix wood oracle.
Location: That bit with the nagas
Direct cause: Nagas
Indirect cause: Claustrophobia
Ryker was never happy in places where he couldn't see the sky. He made random decisions as he explored the dungeon (a player-imposed limitation, using a D12). After rescuing some prisoners, he got bored when the rest of the group stopped to talk to them and went forwards on his own, forgetting to heal himself first. A couple of area effect spells and some bad reflex saves were all it took to finish him off.
Maemi kills the sorceress with her tentacle cage just before being killed by a 4x crit from the naganata wielding Samurai/Inquisitor. The infuriated erinyes continue to rain down arrows on the party, and manage to kill the cavalier, followed by the other two.
Ouch, that hurts… Are you going to restart, or is this the end of your campaign?
Character Name: Meric (Half Elf Elemental Bloodline Sorcerer(Air))
Adventure: Forrest of Spirits
Location: Bridge of the Feasting Kirin
Catalyst: Gorgon Breath during foiled infiltration attempt.
Meric was scouting ahead attempting to find Munasukaru's lair using invisibility and fly to bypass most encounters as the party wished to see if they could 'teleport-bomb' her lair and take her out. Meric's attempt was going well until encountering the Gorgon Jigaou who detected him with scent as he flew over the guarding Oni and his mount.
Having a general idea of the direction of the Sorcerer(and the sorcerer unfortunately failing any knowledge checks to recognize the large metallic bull), a miasma of green gas left the invisible sorcerer petrified and far away from any party support.
After some stomping and goring around, the Huge gorgon eventually managed to locate the poor invisible statue of Meric before he could pass another save and attempt an escape, only to be shattered and eventually exposed to another noxious petrifying burst that solidified his condition permanently.
The remainder of the group waited from their 'safe point' for some time, never receiving any further information from Meric, they eventually had to assume his demise or capture and press on without him. At the moment, Meric's player is controlling Shalelu who fortunately was part of their assault team in combat until his body can be recovered and de-petrified.
Book 4 has been rough on this group, as their normal 'outside the box' strategies have largely been turned against them due to bad luck, poor planning, and their relative 'newness' to high level play.
Everyone wish them luck, they have a whole lot of stuff behind them, and a whole lot of stuff in front of them. Meric was always the 'escape plan' for the party, so they are just having to press forward and hope their resources hold out!
That's Mikazes group?
Maemi kills the sorceress with her tentacle cage just before being killed by a 4x crit from the naganata wielding Samurai/Inquisitor. The infuriated erinyes continue to rain down arrows on the party, and manage to kill the cavalier, followed by the other two.Ouch, that hurts… Are you going to restart, or is this the end of your campaign?
We are going to carry on, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to make things work. I've got another thread going here that gives some more details on our situation and I'm trying to solicit some help figuring out where to go. If you or anyone else has thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
That's Mikazes group?
Nah, that is my group 2. Both parties are around the same spot, so there may be some overlap in the meantime unless one group manages to significantly pull ahead of the other.