Dispater's Devils by GM SnowHeart (a Hell's Vengeance AP)

Game Master SnowHeart

Yeah, that does sound like a better option. Taking its greatsword would make it much less deadly. It's chewing us up and I'm not sure we can take much more. Too bad the natural 20 on the charge didn't work. It was a great idea.

To be clear, did my touch of madness work on it? If so, I could do that again before we try it.

OR, we could all just step back to where we were and try to pepper it down with missile weapons? It seemed disinclined to be surrounded by us and withdrew--maybe that would work if Ingrid withdrew?

Re: Bullrush. Thanks, it was worth a shot!

The problem is that it had at least DR5. Ingrid’s claws did nothing, so Missile weapons will likely be ineffective as well.

Also I think grapple>disarm, as it probably has a bite attack.

Finally there are more foes. The longer we take on this, the greater the chance of a TPK is.

Touch of madness did work. And you would be able to tell by this point that it has DR10/(unknown type).

And yeah A+ on the bull rush, really good strategy. Unfortunately, it does have greater teleport as an SLA.

I think grapple is a good idea. Maybe we can grapple and disarm? Ingrid grapples, Brogol disarms, Eris takes the Greatword?

Or retreat, honestly. Go back to town, rest up, get Ingrid a 2-H weapon and come back.

Technically I can use my masterwork mace with 2 hands. With Str18 and BaB2, it is:

+2 (BaB) + 1 (Masterwork) + 2 (Divine Favor) + 4 (Str) -1 (Power Attack) = +8
1d8 (base) + 2 (Divine Favor) + 6 (Str) + 3 (Power Attack) = 1d8+11

With DR10/? this means I'll be doing 1d8+1 damage with each hit. It's not much, but at least it is something.

So Ingrid will power attack away, while Brogol tries to disarm and Eris takes the Greatsword.

If we get the greatsword, Brogol can join you in power attacking with risky strike. If he flanks he:

attacks at +2 BAB +1 MW +4 dex +2 flank -1 PA for +8 for 1d6+9+2d6 (avg about 20)

Oh, I just checked the map and the hound is back at the other end of the rope bridge, so Brogol can't get to it to disarm it b/c he can't get adjacent to it. We have to draw it to us again.

OK, so I'm thinking if Ingrid misses Brogol's going to try and jump onto Hound, taking falling damage but also delivering it. How would we adjucate that? Touch attack?

Touch attack sounds perfect. Since you're intentionally falling, you can try to reduce the damage dealt to yourself with an acrobatics check.

Note that thanks to its DR, you'll have to roll quite well on fall damage to hurt it. But on the other hand, you'll be on the ground and threatening it, so you might be able to finish it off afterward.

What is the damage I roll if he jumps onto the hound? 3d6? Or something less?

EDIT: I want to confirm before I start rolling dice that this would be the order of rolls?

1. Acrobatics check to lessen damage.
2. Brogol's damage to himself
3. Touch attack (1d20+dex+BAB since Brogol is a ranged weapon).
4. Damage to the hound

I assume Brogol would end up prone in an adjacent square?

Lets call it 3d6 damage to your target too. It'll deal that much regardless of whether or not you succeed at lessening damage for yourself.

That order sounds good, and yes, you'd end up prone if you take any damage.

Moving forward I see 3 options:

1: Hard Mode - stay as is
2: More Players
3: Higher level for us 3 to survive this. Or maybe free VMC, or WBL, or some other power up to get by

Thoughts?

As a heads up, we are coming to the climax of the 1st book. Upon completing it, I'll be stepping down as GM, as I mentioned when I took over in the first place. I'm still a bit overloaded on the GMing front. Since we haven't heard from Snow, that means the group will either need a new GM or to take this as the conclusion of the story.

You've been awesome to step up to help us get this far, Cellion.

I'm going to be sad to see this one go. My favorite option (if Cellion is stepping down) would be to have Dr. Franz rejoin us and look for a new GM to help us move forward.

Of course, finding a new GM is always challenging, but sometimes if there's a good group someone will step forward.

Agreed, you’ve been amazing. Hats off to you for getting us to the end of this book

In total agreement. You're a great GM, Cellion and it has been a real pleasure to play Brogol with y'all. Thanks for taking this on, Cellion, and thanks for being great players PatheticWrench and Grumbaki.

I'd be happy to keep going with Franz back and a new GM if we can wrangle it.

I had a death in the family and will be leaving town, trying to tie up some loose ends at work, etc. over the next week. Posting may be slow going for a bit.

Sorry for your loss Brogol. No worries about post rate.

Indeed, my condolences

Sorry about that--had one in my close family this year, too.

Bad time to roll low...but hey. If we get a TPK, at least it is an end to book 1 (the final fight!) and it makes for a good story.

Dice don't fail us now!

But yes, if it is a TPK then that's a fitting end for our villains.

I actually think that puts Brogol down. TPK it is, then.

It's been a fun ride.

Hahhahaaaahahaaa!

Yep, Brogol was down a couple of HPs to start the fight, so he's down. His dreams of knighthood will have to wait for another game. <sadface>

GM, I know you've mentioned in the past that this AP has problems, but regarding this adventure, I thought it was pretty well crafted. The sandboxy second act was great. I'm not a huge fan of dungeons, but as they go the tree fort was unusual and well-designed.

I've enjoyed gaming with y'all. Thanks for having my ambitious, if unlearned, rogue along for the ride!

Well, shoot. That was a fun game. I would have very much liked to play that out. Eris may be the most fun I've had with a character. I'm not sure she would fit in any other game, so I doubt I'll have a chance to play her again.

Thanks for those that stuck around, and especially to Cellion for rescuing us. That's the second time Snowheart has disappeared from a game, but I appreciate you stepping in to finish up the story, at least to the ending we had.

You've all been great. I'd hope to game with you again (and of course do with some of you!)

Not gonna lie. Eris’ death was pretty sad. She and Brogol had good deaths. Really enjoyed having an evil campaign where the characters had reasons for what they did.

A great ending for a great campaign! My thanks to all involved for a great time!

An unfortunate end to our evildoers. I definitely considered having one of our previous party members arrive on the scene to help, but when I saw that you guys feeling relatively ok with the prospect of the TPK, I let things fall as they rolled instead. Hope you guys were all OK with that.

A challenging final act after relatively easy combats through the rest of the book. DR is a nightmare to fight through, and the tree fort's guidance for the GM to let weakened foes retreat to reinforce the boss made for a very dangerous final encounter. You guys did great for fighting through this with 3 people.

And Eris' cinematic death was a fitting end to our mad cleric!
------

@Brogol: I did end up making a lot of changes to the story events in the back end of this book to streamline things, giving you more options to take the investigation into your own hands. As the book is written, your characters are not given any actual leads until several weeks pass in game so that some scheduled events happen! It's quite the clunky approach.
------

After I get back from traveling this weekend, I'll work on an epilogue for us

It felt fairly satisfying for a TPK. Though to be honest, I had still harbored hopes that we might get Dr. Franz back and then find an alternate GM. That was a great character.

Cellion, if you end up starting any new games (with this and soon our Crimson Throne campaign ending) or need a replacement player in anything you're running, would you please keep us in mind? This has been a stellar group, and you're an amazing GM.

It's been a fun ride.

Everyone's death was great, though like Eris I was holding out hope we'd be able to continue with an alternate GM.

Eris and Ingrid, I could tell you both really enjoyed your PCs and it showed in your postings. That was a great final post for our PCs, Eris. It did wrap things up very nicely.

I'd like to second Eris's thoughts that you're an amazing GM, Cellion. Please keep us in mind. It has been fun, y'all!

Thanks, Brogol. I'd also have liked to see where Brogol went. You played him very well, and I loved his side quests with his family and pursuit of knighthood.

Ingrid, also loved your character and our "sisterhood."

I should also say, it's more fun to play when the possibility of losing is real. Death isn't fun, especially with a character I loved. But it's better than being snatched from the fire with no consequences.

Well played, all.

Echoing above: no risk, no fun. Though I will say that dying can be fun. Here, for example. It made for a great story! And I always write [DECEASED] in the profile of every PC lost in action. A little badge for a story concluded.

For this story…at least Ingrid and Eris found family and died with that bond. But poor Brogol. He had things to do! And I really liked an evil character with dreams of knighthood. It isn’t seen that often and it worked well here.

Now we just need the epilogue, something I’m looking forward to reading. :)

One of my other games is wrapping up soon-ish (A Starfinder AP: Dead Suns), after which I'll probably start something new. Not sure yet if it'll be more Starfinder or something Pathfinder-y. But I'll make sure to ping you guys to see if you're interested.

Was a pleasure playing with you all!

Great ending. I enjoyed how it isn't all sunshine and roses with the goodguys winning. It shows the repercussions of the PCs losing, along with how the larger picture is unfolding. Well done.

And yes, please do ping me if you are running another campaign. :)

Agreed on all accounts with Ingrid. It was a wonderful ending and really puts the (relatively minor) role of PCs in context with the larger story. Poor Ingrid, Eris, and Brogol and their unrealized villianity.

Happy to be pinged if another game opens up as well.

I just concluded a Dead Suns campaign on the boards here. The GM did a lot of streamlining from what I gather to make the AP conclude in about 5k posts. I thought it was a pretty solid AP, and did a good job of introducing the setting through a kind of "globetrotting" adventure.

Many thanks for finishing this up for us, Cellion. Though I had hoped to keep the Franz/Eris connection going, it was definitely fun to finish this to the point we did.

I wouldn't ever call a TPK completely satisfying, but it's as much as one could hope for. You're a great GM, and I'd also love a ping on any new campaigns!

Have some great holidays, all!