Name: Corwyn
Race: vercite
Classes/levels: expert 1/arcane bomber wizard 4
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: K1. The False Sepulcher
Catalyst: That trap
The Gory Details: The party had detected and disarmed the trap, then spent a very long time figuring out what was going on. Eventually they succeeded and decided to destroy the clone body against the chance of Sorshen coming back in it. Corwyn had a different idea, though. She triggered the trap and woke up in a new body. (She's carrying the shard of pride, and has done an excellent job roleplaying the effect it's having on her.)
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Name: Maddeva
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Arcane Sorcerer 6
Adventure: The Asylum Stone
Location: The catwalk of the Hanging Manse
Catalyst: Berkanin Ardoc's spell, black tentacles
The Gory Details: The party confronted Berkanin. Unfortunately, they released the troll. Combined with the 2 clockwork soldiers, they were getting hurt really bad. The party tank and the rogue led the withdrawal across the catwalk. Maddeva only made it halfway across the catwalk when Berkanin cast black tentacles. Maddeva got grabbed and squished. The party managed to take her body when they fled but are not planning to resurrect her (the player is moving away).
Name: Degnar
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Monk 6
Adventure: The Asylum Stone
Location: The hallway on the east side of the catwalk of the Hanging Manse
Catalyst: Fireball
The Gory Details: After Maddeva got squished, everyone else continued to try to flee. Degnar was actually able to avoid being grappled by the tentacles and get to the other side of the catwalk. However, Berkanin, hoping to get Degnar as well as the party tank and the rogue who were nearby, cast Fireball into the hallway. The two other characters managed to be far enough away from the point of impact but Degnar got fried. Currently, his body is with the group but they have no plans, and not enough money, to resurrect him.
Name: Maddeva
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Arcane Sorcerer 6
Adventure: The Asylum Stone
Location: The catwalk of the Hanging Manse
Catalyst: Berkanin Ardoc's spell, black tentacles
The Gory Details: The party confronted Berkanin. Unfortunately, they released the troll. Combined with the 2 clockwork soldiers, they were getting hurt really bad. The party tank and the rogue led the withdrawal across the catwalk. Maddeva only made it halfway across the catwalk when Berkanin cast black tentacles. Maddeva got grabbed and squished. The party managed to take her body when they fled but are not planning to resurrect her (the player is moving away).Name: Degnar
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Monk 6
Adventure: The Asylum Stone
Location: The hallway on the east side of the catwalk of the Hanging Manse
Catalyst: Fireball
The Gory Details: After Maddeva got squished, everyone else continued to try to flee. Degnar was actually able to avoid being grappled by the tentacles and get to the other side of the catwalk. However, Berkanin, hoping to get Degnar as well as the party tank and the rogue who were nearby, cast Fireball into the hallway. The two other characters managed to be far enough away from the point of impact but Degnar got fried. Currently, his body is with the group but they have no plans, and not enough money, to resurrect him.
Berkanin is a deceptively (I didn't realize before I ran it) deadly encounter. A lot of nice spells, minions, and terrain advantage with flight. Black Tentacles....
This one takes a little explaining.
Name: Corwyn
Race: vercite (in the body of Sorshen)
Classes/Levels: expert 1/arcane bomber wizard 5
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: L1. Arrival Platform
Catalyst: Mochtau (from L4. Mochtau's Hall)
The Gory Details: It was early in the morning. The previous day had seen the adventurers make it to K12, where they encountered the incubus. Corwyn, now in the body of Sorshen, saw the incubus and told him that he was reassigned to her boudoir and to report there immediately. She got a 28 on her Bluff check, and the incubus teleported away. A few rounds later he teleported back with Ashamintallu, who had of course been in the boudoir already. The PCs were very low on resources but they managed to get a round one glitterdust off against Ashamintallu, piercing her spell resistance and lucking out when she failed her save. She had a hero point (long story) and used it to d-door back to her boudoir, since she wasn't sure who these people were who could blind her the instant she showed up she didn't go straight there when she couldn't leave. She instead made a plan that involved reassigning people, including the incubus who had followed Ashamintallu very soon afterward (having been disarmed and badly hurt).
So it was the next day, and among those reassigned was Mochtau, who was waiting on the arrival platform. The PCs were still fighting her when the incubus showed up as part of his process of teleporting from room to room throughout the entire complex looking for the intruders. He tried to teleport away almost immediately, but the PCs focussed on him. Unfortunately, this left Mochtau free to do as she wished; what she wished was to attack the person impersonating "her" (since she still believed she was the real Sorshen). She made short work of the wizard.
Name: Armath Ethmaed
Race: half-elf
Classes/Levels: expert 1/unchained rogue 5/slayer 3
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: E4. Guardian Crypt
Catalyst: greater shadows
The Gory Details: The PCs were clever, and discovered how to skip directly to the sea level (ie Area E) by using stone shape in one of the caves. They were pretty under levelled, and the greater shadow fight was a really tough one for them. One of them fell to their Strength damage.
Name: Trixie Longtooth
Race: Triaxian
Classes/Levels: expert 1/barbarian 9
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: E10. Crypts of the Final Priests
Catalyst: poisonous Groetan mummy
The Gory Details: This may be on me. I changed the mummies because I feel like twelve undead each trying to paralyze the PCs leads to a less fun combat that might (for our group, at least) drag on longer than desired. I gave the mummies the poisonous template from the Advanced Bestiary and ignored their Despair ability. This ended up being hard on the barbarian, who got hit a lot.
(I still think the fight was more fun for my players than it would have been with the standard mummy stat block.)
tbug, a question: Why do all your PC's have a level of expert?
The PCs are students at Low Bridge University on Triaxus. They have one level of expert for each year of studies they've completed. They are currently in a group directed studies course which has taken them to the Cage.
Every thaw the various higher learning institutions on Triaxus have a competition showing what their students are up to, and all three times so far Triaxus University has won. Low Bridge University is determined to win this time, and a divination indicated that sending some students to reassemble the Sihedron could potentially do it for them.
Name: Flavian Ejiadiel
Race: Aasimar
Classes/Levels: Fighter 6 / Heritor Knight 3
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: M3. Sorshen's Boudoir
Catalyst: Confusion spell by Ashamintallu
The Gory Details: After battling through the entire dungeon and almost losing a party member to the Seugathi's confusion aura, when the Seughati ordered our Bloodrager to attack a party member, the party battled it out with Ashamintallu. Sadly, she didn't last as long as one would think against a party mainly composed of melee characters, but she landed a devastating Confusion spell on the assembled party at the start, which resulted in the Bloodrager this time beating the Fighter to a nat -20 HP in a single full attack.
Luckily, since this was the end of the dungeon, the party made it back to Magnimar quickly and got the PC raised, so that the player did not have to sit out a session or something like that.
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Name: Lola (Jessica Scarnetti)
Race: human
Classes/levels: barbarian 9 (5e)
Adventure: Asylum Stone
Location: Black Keep
Catalyst: Dark Rider's axe
The Gory Details: I rewrote some parts of Asylum Stone when I converted to 5e. One of the things I did was to have the Dark Rider come after one of my PCs, Lola, while they were in Kaer Maga. After dealing with some family drama where we learned that she was secretly a Scarnetti, they assaulted the Black Keep and came to the final showdown with the Rider. Lola charged in and was immediately overwhelmed. To try and escape, she dived into the Whispering Well and hid while the rest of the party tried to distract the Rider. Unfortunately the well kept showing her visions of her beheading at the hands of the Rider. When she came out to try and make a final desperate attempt to defeat the Rider, he turned, drew his headsman's axe and slashed Lola's throat open. As she lay there trying to survive the grievous wound, he removed her head with one final stroke.
Name: Flavian Ejiadiel
Race: Aasimar
Classes/Levels: Fighter 6 / Heritor Knight 6
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: E7. Lights of the Dead
Catalyst: Zapped to near death by Will o'Wisps, then life sucked out by an Animate Dream.
The Gory Details: The party had been progressing well in the dungeons under Windsong Abbey, but after resting one too many times, they ran into an ambush which combined about six encounters (Sinspawn rangers, Zolerim, Baraghera, Animate Dreams, Ricle Peaks and the Will o'Wisps) into one.
The fight was progressing okay for the party, since the Sorshen-clone Wizard managed to Dismiss the Baraghera right at the beginning of the fight. However, Flavian had advanced too far ahead and got mobbed by four of the Will o'Wisps, which burned down his HP over two rounds (he actually had the advantage of absorbing five damage from each attack, but still down the HP went.) Since all the healers were too far away, he finally was at deaths door and the Animate Dream didn't let that opportunity pass.
He got ressurected from the scroll found further back in the dungeon the same evening and will continue on the next day toward Ardathanatus.
Name: Flavianne Ejiadiel
Race: Aasimar
Classes/Levels: Fighter 6 / Heritor Knight 8
Adventure: Into the Nightmare Rift
Location: D4. Ritual Isle
Catalyst: Bit by Ognathooga, then finished off by a wail of a Banshee
The Gory Details: The party had moved down in the Core and hesitantly started to explore the vast cavern. After noticing the small island to their right, they flew over to it. On the move there, Ognathooga unsuccessfully tried to Dominate three different party members.
On the island I had changed out the six Dark Naga (a vastly underpowered encounter for the party of six at level 14) against a single Banshee. To lure the players, I placed a self-built item, the "Hand Mirror of Self-Righteousness" (basically a Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone, just that you need a free hand to hold it and it has the draw-back that you like to smell your own farts) at the center of the island.
One of the PC's went to retrieve it and of course the Banshee rose out of the ground as soon as he had touched it. At the same time Ognathooga came out of hiding in the water from behind.
Flavienne, formerly Flavian before leveling in the Heritor Knight PrC changed his gender, moved up to Ognathooga and got bit for her troubles, losing two levels and 45 HP. Then the Banshee came up from behind, nobody killed her fast enough or had healed Flavienne, so when she wailed, Flavienne's player rolled a 3 on the dice, which was not enough and down she went to -40 HP.
Ognathooga wasted no time, dived deep and took Flaviennes corpse in the same round back to her lair for some munching.
After some discussion, the Bloodrager and Paladin went after Ognathooga buffed to the gills (the most important buffs being Fly and Freedom of Movement) and the Bloodrager one-rounded her after moving close with his Quickrunner Shirt, to the tune of something like 400 HP of damage, before she died on the fourth hit due to a natural 1 on a massive damage fortitude save. I didn't mind too much, because the difficulty of getting Flavienne back from an underwater cave had made for some amusing discussions and also the Paladin would have acted and smited before Ognathooga's next turn, anyway.
Flavienne got resurrected from the single leg left still left after Ognathooga was almost done munching her down by using another Resurrection scroll (good thing there are a few around to find in the AP).
Name: Theodric Brandybuck
Race: Originally a Halfling, now an Azlanti (Sorshen's clone body)
Classes/Levels: Vigilante 14
Adventure: Into the Nightmare Rift
Location: F9, Temple of Crawling Chaos
Catalyst: Lured close to the stewing Shoggoth, he was grappled and consumed.
The Gory Details: I always thought this was a boring AP to read but it has been fantastic to run with so many varied and interesting encounters. This was another one.
With the Moon Beasts taking shelter behind the stone pot from the sorcerer who was bombarding them with his nukes, Theo advanced upon the beasts without wondering what was in the great pot.
He quickly found himself in a lot of trouble. The Spiritualist made an attempt to free him with a Freedom of Movement but poor Theo was engulfed before he could be rescued.
Maintaining the legacy of Rogues everywhere, Theo has more deaths than the all of the other party members combined. It's a tough life.
Name: Lance Sterling
Race: Male Half-Orc
Classes/Levels: Separatist Cleric of Desna 7
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: L4: Mochtau's Hall
Catalyst: GM Jinxing, or just a bad crit
The Gory Details: Although the party had made short work of her giant lizard "pets", Mochtau's insistence that she was in fact Sorshen, combined with her persistent hurling of filth-filled treasure chests at the party, convinced the party that they'd be best off closing with her for hand-to-hand combat. Yes, the axe could be dangerous on a crit, but how often does that happen?
Lance acted as the front man (as always) to protect the Red Sash (Slayer 6/Investigator 1) and Tussle (Gunslinger Pistolero 7) as they moved in for the kill. Unfortunately, once they closed for hand-to-hand combat, they learned that Mochtau could hit the Red Sash relatively easily, and could do massive damage. (Power Attack + Vital Strike + two-handed wielding = 33 on the first hit.)
Xondra (witch 7) used Evil Eye to give Mochtau -2 to hit, and Lance decided to risk the attack of opportunity to grant the Red Sash a flank so he'd bring her down faster.
GM: She'll get an attack of opportunity.
Lance: Who cares? It's not like it'll hurt all that much!
GM: It will if I get a crit!
Lance: Go ahead! Make your roll!
GM: Is a 20 a hit?
Lance: Yep.
6d6+45 = 71 hit points later, Lance went to -17 with a Con of 10 and was killed instantly. The Red Sash might have suffered the same fate, as he only hit her once on his next attack and didn't bring her down, but Tussle was now anjry.
Six shots in a single round, the first three using Up Close and Deadly, on a giant with a touch AC of 9.
Mochtau died something awful.
Lance has chosen not to return, and we eagerly await a new victim PC.
Name: Sasha, aka The Red Sash
Race: Male Half-Elf
Classes/Levels: Slayer 6/Investigator 1
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: L25: Sorshen's Great Secret
Catalyst: Running in to a room full of babaus
The Gory Details: Sometimes, players are willing to make sacrifices for roleplay. On seeing the three babaus clambering out of the bloody walls, the Red Sash made a massive Knowledge: Planes roll to identify them and recognize them as sneak-attacking demons with three attacks per round.
So the Red Sash ran in to the middle of all three of them to hit one with his cold iron ranseur. (It's what his character would have done, even though it was an obvious suicide maneuver.)
It didn't go well from there. Two of the babau flanked him and got in two hits with sneak attack damage, while the third started summoning. The party wizard dropped that one into a pit to keep the fight from getting too out of hand, while the gunslinger shot one of them and the oracle moved in to try to help the Red Sash avoid any further flanks. He managed to 5' step into a corner, but his full-round attack did not manage to drop the wounded one, so the two babau five-foot stepped up to him and six attacks resulted in another four hits (this time without sneak attack damage), but it was enough to drop him to negative hit points.
The babau pressed their attack, teleporting in to surround the remaining party members. With things looking hopeless, the wizard made his desperate Concentration check to get the survivors out.
The babaus, frustrated at losing their prey, took out their anger on the Red Sash's unconscious form. He did not survive.
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About five dead PC's (I think three times the same guy, though) in The Dead Heart of Xin, but since the Sihedron just got them back immediately, the deaths didn't feel very epic.
Name: Thea Vanderale
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Kineticist 12
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: E13: Temple of Doomsday
Catalyst: Dragged into the abyss by a Qlippoth Lord
The Gory Details: The party was really out of their league when it came to this fight, as 3 of them (and Koriah) died during it. Thea was the only one to stay dead though. From the beginning of the fight Ardathanatus put himself in a very defensive position, the repulsion effect stopped the Oradin and the druid's animal companion from entering the room, the blade barrier caused damage to anyone wanting to approach from land, and the sorcerer was transformed into a crab thanks to a baleful polymorph from one of the qlippoths. This pretty much left Thea as the only person left with a clear shot at Ardathanatus. A few thunderstom blasts and some repositioning later and Thea had taken the elf down. Unfortunately after being chased by the qlippoths she had wound up in front of the doomsday door as Ardathanatus' magic failed.
An instant after her last blast the doors swung open revealing Yamasoth, the Polymorph Plague himself. After failing her save against his horrific appearance Thea accepted chaos into her heart and became a willing servant of Yamasoth. With that she accepted the cold embrace of his tentacles as he retreated into the Abyss with a new plaything.
So while she's not technically dead (and may come back as some product of demonic experimentation in the future) she's as good as dead to the party.
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Name: Vissaa
Ancestry: Kobold
Class/Level: Sorcerer 8
Adventure: PFS Scenario in-between Curse of the Lady's Light & The Asylum Stone (No PFS1 spoilers)
Catalyst:Closing into close combat as a sorcerer, with help from unwitting allies.
The Gory Details:
They gave the opposition a couple minutes of advance notice. Said opposition also had their backs to a wall. After getting attacked once or twice, the sorcerer cast Improved Invisibility and thought herself untargetable. However, one of the opposition was a sorcerer who had Lightning Bolt and her allies kept moving to either side of her while she converesed with them and called tactics. The sorcerer let fly, hitting her two intended targets as well as the invisible one.
There was a soft thud as Vissaa hit the ground.
Then their alchemist tried groping around to heal her, and the Hellknight attacked the sorcerer. Neither of them changed their position.
So the enemy sorcerer cast the spell again, almost dropping the alchemist and killing the invisible kobold sorcerer. Then the remaining PCs got to surround the sorcerer, who tried to flee and succeeded.
Then the spell wore off, and Vissaa was visible again. Fortunately, she has the Prestige to get herself raised, and they did accomplish their mission.
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Name: Vissa Sewer Dragon
Ancestry: Kobold
Class/Level: Star-soul Sorcerer 10
Adventure: Feast of Sigils
Catalyst: Everything Going Wrong
The Gory Details:
I'm including some PFS scenarios in this, due to relevance.
Basically, the kobold with STR 6 took 6 STR damage and fainted. Allies stayed close to her, up against a foe with known AoE attacks. This killed her by accident.
Also, the antagonist got away.
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Name: Sir Gaius Stormshield; Purrcible McCoy
Ancestry: Chelish Human; Garundi Amurran
Class/Level: Fighter (Armiger) 5/Hellknight 5; Witch 10
Adventure: Beyond the Scary Doomsday Door
Catalyst: 20s on Knowledge checks; 1s on Will saves. Also, Luthask
The Gory Details: I'd decided the two generic mummies in the room with Luthask were low-level Pathfinders, furious at how they got jumped by redcaps and undeadified by someone they didn't know, and nobody even bothered to find out what happened to them while the Society's Golden Children could get Resurrected whenever they'd want!
The PCs got a natural 20 on the Local checks to recall them, as well as another one on noticing the trapdoor. Three of the PCs rolled less than 3 against the mummies' Auras of Despair, and got paralyzed for 3 or 4 rounds each.
Right after they'd all been Nauseated by the nyogoth, everyone was rightly angry at having been taken out of action twice consecutively. Fortunately, the couatl they'd rescued in an earlier chapter was there to give one of them a Freedom of Movement and blast the mummies with Scorching Rays. He refused to bite the zombie, though.
Then, Luthask walked up to Purrcy. He'd trusted in his sturdy Will Save to let him get close enough to blast both mummies with a Lightning Bolt, but his normally-strong Will failed him.
So Luthask hit him with his axe. Of course it was a crit. Of course this killed him. On his next two turns, he stomped up to the paralyzed Sir Gaius, willingly taking AoOs in order to deliver a Coup de Grace. Gaius only had one turn of paralysis left.
Fortunately, Luthask was dissolved by some kind of alchemist's Holy Beer on the following round, and everyone got on the couatl to fly back to Sandpoint.
They did, in fact, use Prestige to activate a contingency plan and get their slain fellows Raised. They agreed to head directly back to Windsong Abbey.
They went through the front door this time, and got a big rock dropped on them. They stopped and healed back up to full right there in the rubble while the redcaps laughed at them, and the alchemist yelled out that they'd have to go back to Sandpoint after EVERY SINGLE THING THAT HAPPENS!!
...and this is just the upper floors.
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Name Purrcible McCoy
Ancestry Garundi Amurran
Class/Level Witch 12
Adventure Beyond the Scary Doomsday Door
Catalyst Poison
The Gory Details: The chernobue fell on everyone, paralyzing Sir Gaius and confusing Purrcy, to both players' dismay.
The confusion was dispelled, but the qlippoth managed to bite Purrcy, who had Fortitude as his worst save.
They did manage to kill the qlippoth (Torsten the alchemist trying, unsuccessfully, to lure the monster away), but couldn't help their friend and ally to recover from the poison. So they did the next best thing and Torsten gave him a posthumous Breath of Life.
Right after the qlippoth slime violently expelled itself from Purrcy's every orifice, Torsten described his use of that extract as "Gargling magic cough syrup and spraying it directly into Purrcy's mouth with a Kiss of Life."
We were all grossed out by the whole thing; Purrcy's first words upon recovery were, "Death is preferable! DEATH IS PREFERABLE!!"
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Name: Vissaa Sewer Dragon
Ancestry: Kobold
Class/Level: Star-Soul Sorcerer 16
Adventure: The Dead Heart of Xin
Catalyst: Irony
The Details:
Due to some Shining Children of Thassilon having been rude while getting sent back home, Vissaa was magically insane.
Instead of the not-fun "Permanent Confusion", I secretly told her player that she was certain her ally, Sir Gaius was insane and would do something horrifically stupid at any moment. If she told anyone, he might attack her.
Later, they found a magic robe held by a statue with a spell on it to make you want whatever it was holding. Everyone thought that was very suspicious, and ignored the statue's offering of the beautiful robe.
Then the writing on the floor started zapping them, and they had to fight it. One of the Floating Runes turned into a Symbol of Pain, giving everyone -4 on Saves as soon as Vissaa was closest to the statue.
She said, "Ow! That's it! Vissaa will stop Metal Man from doing stupid things! Vissaa knows how to do things safe! LIKE THIS!"
She grabbed the Robe of Powerlessness, put it on, fell over, looked at the Symbol it was concealing, and died on the spot.
It was Sir Gaius who flung the Sihedron at her, calling upon its True Resurrection as he did. Vissaa was alive and sane again, but still needed help getting out from under the robe.
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Name: Purrcy McCoy
Details: Amurran Witch 17
Adventure: The Dead Heart of Xin
Catalyst: No Energy Resistance
The Details:
They entered the room where Emperor Xin was killed, and immediately looked through the Flamma Horicalcum.
They saw the Emperor, old and frightened, telling his almost-finished Clockwork Reliquary to return to its post, then get attacked by a giant who teleported in while the palace's wards were down.
They saw him get hit by the giant's Spark Shower, then the two of them die as Xin threw a hasty Mythical Meteor Storm and a Quickened Empowered Fireball at him, failing both saves against his own spells.
They lowered the Flamma Horicalcum to see the giant, back again, try to kill Xin who had inhabited the clockwork servant they'd found in the first chapter and had carried around with them the entire rest of the time.
Purrcy didn't get out of the way of either the giant's Spark Shower, nor the Emperor's Meteor Storm. He had the Sihedron thrown to him, though, meaning they couldn't rely on it to bring anyone back during the final fight with the Reliquary.
It was the final PC death of the entire AP.