7 Days to the Grave TPK, what next? (Spoilers!)


Curse of the Crimson Throne


So, my party all died in the Temple of Urgathoa. We talked it out, and we're not particularly interested in making a new party that will be able to successfully sneak in, not set off any alarms, and clear out the temple. But we're not necessarily interested in abandoning the campaign, either. So I offered them this: we'll just start the next adventure. I'll figure out what happens with the plague.

So what happens with the plague? The party didn't kill Dr. Davaulus, most of the Priests of Urgathoa, Rolth, Ramoska Arkminos, or Lady Andaisin. I guess the Queen would have enough control over the Urgathoans to reign in the disease once all the undesirables were killed off? Maybe? I'm not all that certain that the Urgathoans are going to be interested in stopped the plague until it's killed the entire city.

Maybe the Academy eventually figures out a cure on their own? That makes some sense. Most of the city's population would probably be dead, but not all of it. Dr. Davaulus would go back home, mission accomplished. As would Ramoska. Rolth is still wandering around, and will show up in Pilt's Palace or wherever. I'm not sure where Lady Andaisin goes - the Queen might have to have her be assassinated.

I haven't read the last 2 adventures yet - is there something else I'll need to account for if the Queen's plan to purge the sick of Korvosa goes off mostly as planned? Should we just start a new campaign?


I honestly can't remember exactly what all of the named NPC's interests are, but I can say that I understand your pain. My group accidentally pulled the entire temple and got ruined, though the nice GM pulled some punches and we barely survived. It would have been a TPK but we did not want to roll up new characters.

It's easy to drum up some people interested in seeing that Korvosa be freed of Ileosa's influence, especially someone from the Sable Company seeking revenge or maybe some disgruntled guardsman that the captain recruits (her name escapes me).

As for the plague, I doubt the Urgathoans would give up easily, and could cause an inter-war between them and the Queen when she finally wants the plague shut down. If I remember correctly, however, Doctor Davalus is a member of the Red Mantis, and his fealty would be to the queen (their employer) first and foremost. So at most, I think the Urgathoans would be slaughtered by the Queen's Gray Maidens if they chose not to cooporate, which would ultimately lead to the Plague dying down over the weeks the PCs are out of the city.


Erren wrote:

So, my party all died in the Temple of Urgathoa. We talked it out, and we're not particularly interested in making a new party that will be able to successfully sneak in, not set off any alarms, and clear out the temple. But we're not necessarily interested in abandoning the campaign, either. So I offered them this: we'll just start the next adventure. I'll figure out what happens with the plague.

So what happens with the plague? The party didn't kill Dr. Davaulus, most of the Priests of Urgathoa, Rolth, Ramoska Arkminos, or Lady Andaisin. I guess the Queen would have enough control over the Urgathoans to reign in the disease once all the undesirables were killed off? Maybe? I'm not all that certain that the Urgathoans are going to be interested in stopped the plague until it's killed the entire city.

Maybe the Academy eventually figures out a cure on their own? That makes some sense. Most of the city's population would probably be dead, but not all of it. Dr. Davaulus would go back home, mission accomplished. As would Ramoska. Rolth is still wandering around, and will show up in Pilt's Palace or wherever. I'm not sure where Lady Andaisin goes - the Queen might have to have her be assassinated.

THIS ANSWER CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Well, the death toll will be higher because of the PCs' failed mission, but there are other ways to stop the plague. The most logical solution would be this: your party invaded the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden and must certainly have stirred up things in the sick ward and the experimentation ward. If they did, it is likely that patients got out of the hospice and reported on the abuse there. This would lead to the queen having to intervene. She could tell her 'allies' that they reached the goal for which she hired them, so they can leave now. Consequently she could have her Gray Maidens storm the hospice and close it down (making her the hero in the eyes of the public).

Anyway, if you make a new party, I'd advise you to tie in your new characters to the campaign. Some ideas on the top of my head:

  • One of the new PCs is a member of the Leroung family or a student at the Leroung university and comes up with a cure for the plague (possibly the alchemist class). In this case you could even have the queen send her agents after this person, giving you another opportunity to face Davaulus and his allies.

  • A PC is a member of one of the churches, for example the church of Sarenrae, which has been struggling to fight the disease. The cleric PC could get in touch with just about anyone on his or her healing rounds, giving you the opportunity to have the new party member meet.

  • The new PC is a student at Orisini's fencing academy, giving you the chance to easily glide into the third adventure.

  • The new PC is a soldier, possibly from the Korvosan Guard, or - more interestingly - from the Sable Company. At the beginning of the third adventure he or she has to escape prosecution and slips into Old Korvosa ...

  • Your new PC could be an Acadamae student. Now, I don't know where you place the Acadamae in the city's conflicts, but in my campaign they side with the queen (having helped her with her infernal contract and the production of blood clones - see adventure six, but this role of the Acadamae is not RAW). Maybe the Acadamae is experimenting first with blood clones before they assist the queen and your new PC is such an experiment, who has no memory of the past - since she is a clone.

  • If you want to tie in one of the PCs to the Arkona family from adventure three, you could have him or her be a member of the Cerulean Society, the city's thieves' guild, which is secretly under control of Arkona.

  • One of your PCs could even be one of the escaped patients from the hospice of the Blessed Maiden, who brings the treachery of that place to light or whose Varisian immunity to the disease is vital to concocting the cure, linking this person to the student of the Leroung university (as in my first dot).

  • The Gray Maidens are brainwashing and torturing young girls into new recruits for their ranks. Your new PC could be an escaped trainee.

Erren wrote:
I haven't read the last 2 adventures yet - is there something else I'll need to account for if the Queen's plan to purge the sick of Korvosa goes off mostly as planned? Should we just start a new campaign?

You should definitely read up on the last two installments. Number six is actually more important to you now, because it discusses the queen and her schemes. Number five is just the quest for a sword in an undead castle, it has less impact on or information about the city plotline.


The method I plan to deal with a TPK should it occur is that I am going to rewind just slightly before it occurs and have the combat that occurred be a vision that Zellara hath foretold and give the players another chance at it.


Well, if your players are attached to their characters, there are other ways of continuing the campaign:

  • You could go with Kennesty's suggestion and have it be a vision.

  • You could also have the PCs still be alive, being hit below zero hit points does not constitute death but unconsciousness. The enemy could have saved the PCs and locked them away as prisoners (maybe to be experimented on?).

  • You could even play an after-death session in Pharasma's Boneyard, where a god(dess) approaches them and sends them back to Golarion on a holy quest. Maybe Sarenrae wants the plague stopped or Abadar wants order restored. You could even go with a darker approach and have Zon-Kuthon send them back to aid Laori Vuas and Shadowcount Sial in their mission.

  • Of course there is always the divine spell called resurrection; your PCs might have made some mighty friends by now ...


I think they're all ok with their deaths. None of them are Varisians, so I saw no reason for Rolth or Dr. Davaulus to keep them alive, they're dead. They also declined to free any of the patients, but I think you're right that it's reasonable to say that one escaped the first floor anyways and summoned the Guard or Sable Company. When they came to investigate, the cult had cleared out or stayed out of sight and then cleared out. Queen Ileosa isn't wild that they're leaving before the job's fully done, but accepts that any more work will expose her. But they take their notes, so while the plague is eventually cured by a church and/or Academae, it takes much longer than if the party had succeeded. They've also lost their Harrow Deck, but I figure that can find its way to them again eventually.

So Adventure 3 will start out a couple months later. The plague has ended, but the toll was incredibly high. Rolth is still at large. Dr. Davaulus will never be seen again. Lady Andaisin I think I'll try to find a new place for. Sadly, Urgathoa won't have much reason to save her if she's killed after the plague's been defeated.

I love your ideas for tying in the new party to Korvosa. I'll get to reading adventure 6 asap, too.


Your idea to continue the campaign should work.

As for the NPCs, Rolth is the only one who definitely hails from Korvosa, Dr. Davaulus is not from the city and Lady Andaisin, well ... I can't really say. In my campaign she is from somewhere else as well. So it would make sense that Dr. Davaulus, Lady Andaisin and their allies just get paid for their services and leave. Rolth on the other hand stays and is a perfect candidate to reappear at Pilts' Palace, as you suggested yourself. Other people have done that before by giving him a family tie to Pilts (maybe Rolth is his brother, father, uncle or something).


If my party TPKs, which is quite possible, I would probably continue the campaign but continue with a Shoanti perspective, all Shoanti characters.

Of course this is more work for the GM, but I think it would be interesting and could be great for roleplaying. And because it's so different, would have a completely different feel to it.

Would depend on where the TPK occurs of course.

Scarab Sages

This actually just happened to me as well. My party was at the very end though and 2 PC's fell unconcho while fighting Lady Andaisin. When she was brought back she finished the rest of them off. I decided to have Sarenrae intervene (being that Ugothoa had just intervened) and she brought all the PC's back to positive HP. It made sense to my players and I believe they didn't know that this wasn't "supposed" to happen. I did have both a Cleric and Paladin of Sarenrae in the party so it made for some good storeytelling for me while they were dead/unconscious. It was kinda cool to rp a god for a few minutes while I lectured them that their work was not done yet so get back in there and win one for the people of Korvosa.

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