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I've never read path of war, but I may submit a character as well. Like I said, I really like going off the rails so I've gotta admit I rather like your policy of "I'm not going to kill you, you're going to kill yourselves." This time was a mix of bad luck(a running theme with me), and 20/20 hindsight.
I'll be honest, I hadn't even thought about doing a knowledge check on either which is pretty bad. That's supposed to be one of an alchemist's strong points. So, I'll claim a bit more credit for the TPK than I already had. Up till the fog, I thought things were going quite well. I'm actually disappointed it ended so soon. From the fog onwards is where things went sideways. And it was every bit as much our fault as yours that things ended up like they did. That said, I still enjoyed what we did. I'm a player who enjoys going of the rails a bit, regardless of the outcome. I also enjoy fighting to the bitter end. As far as constructive criticism goes, you mentioned you wanted us to try a knowledge check. I have had a few DM pull a *wink wink nudge nudge*, "roll a knowledge check" to kick us into gear. It can be hard to remember sometimes that we have to actually ROLL to know things. I liked that you let us make our own mistakes, but hinting to us to make a knowledge check is a good way to tell us we're about to do something that our character may know better than to do. I'm not entirely sure how to comment on your descriptions. When I go back and reread a lot of your posts I see them totally differently than I did at first. In my mind the town we were in was more of a small hamlet not a big city. But your post clearly describes it. So, I think the major descriptions are fine(I just need to read better). That said, the only major description of Ardis was back in January when we started(honestly didn't know we had been playing that long).
Aska bleeds out quickly on the ground. Not the most glamorous of deaths, but she went down fighting. Not much more she could ask for.
Aska is badly hurt, but has no time to stop. Either they bring this thing down or they die. She rallies herself for another attack.
Unfortunately, with the injury to her arm, her swing goes wide. At this point, Ian was their best hope of finishing this. So she did the only thing you could. "That the best you can do? I know pixies who hit harder than you."
Aska falls back on an old battle plan. Moving into position for Ian to flank, and the swinging with all she's worth.
Up to this point, the map hasn't really been much of an issue as we've been dealing with him as he ran past us. It's really just around now when it becomes rather more useful. So no worries.
"Finally..." Aska voice cracks a bit. She wants to say something else; some inspiring "Fight to the last!" kind of thing. But she can't seem to find anymore words to say as they face down what may very well be the death of them. All that was left was to give everything she had into bringing down the opponent who stood before them.
A rush of hope at her brief success. Aska turns once more to reviving Ian. Hoping that the Tanglefoot would restrict him enough to let her and Ian have a fighting chance.
Quickly running out of options, Aska throws her last Tanglefoot bomb. Hoping beyond hope for just a few more seconds of time.
Aska hands shaking, she manages to get her bomb together and find it's mark. Now, she can only hope.
Ah, missed that. All cleared up then, carry on. Bad guy's turn.
Aska thanks the gods for the few moments she's managed to buy. She scrambles for the wand Ian was holding just moments ago and attempts to rouse him with it. She has no chance of survival alone. "Come on big guy, we're not done yet...
With little time to decide, Aska sticks to her guns and tosses out another bomb, hoping for more luck.
Okay, so I'm going to claim full credit on this TPK. There was a lot of stuff I didn't realize before Aska's little speech. Mainly, I didn't realize the fog was a regular thing. Kind of makes this decision a WHOLE lot dumber in retrospect. My bad.
"Son of a..." Aska figures her best bet is going to be hitting the horse with a tangle bomb and the using the his recovery time to grab Ian's wand and try to heal him.
"Do we go for the horse again, or should I try a bomb?" Aska asks quickly, trying to strategize before it makes a return pass.
Aska follows suit with Ian and uses her last prepared extract. Then she moves behind Ian hoping he will fair better than she did against the creature's attacks.
THAT IS NO LONGER AN OPTION! We can try hiding(and we are), but failing that we fight or get killed trying to run away. We aren't outpacing a horse.
Aska follows suit quickly, "This doesn't work, fighting is our only option..." Her grip tightens around her weapon, preparing for the worst.
Except we can't make a break for it. We kill it or it keeps running us down because we aren't outrunning a horse. I thought this might be the case when the horse poofed instead of collapsing. Our options are hide(which we may not be able to do), or fight. That's it. IF we can trash his horse again AND get him to fall again, we could do some serious damage before he gets up. With him prone and if we flank we could probably hit him even with my poor rolls.
"Crap...I think he can summon himself a new horse. Do we try to hide and wait for him to pass or do we ambush him?" Aska asked, knowing they'd never outrun the horse.
Aska runs with Ian, but keeps her ears open. It was on foot now, but that didn't mean it couldn't keep up.
Aska will abandon her bomb(as using ranged attacks in fog actually doesn't seem like the best idea now that she thinks about it), and will draw her Guisarme and ready an action to attack the horse instead.
Doing that.
"Agreed"
Okay then, even if we do die, staying true to the character means doing what we are. Aska couldn't stand by and do nothing with this hitting Ardis.
Aska will ready another bomb for when he reappears, but will target his horse.
I say play it out. We're not dead yet so we have a chance at least. That said, Ian apparently had the right idea by hiding. Here I was think we were supposed to go out and try to deal with it. Oops...
Barely still on her feet, Aska will 5ft step away and then drink one of her extracts of Cure Light Wounds.
Aska feels a chill creep up her spine until her hands begin to shake. She couldn't see what was coming, but she felt her heart skip with every beat of its hooves.
Aska will likewise ready to throw another Tanglefoot Bomb if and when it catches up.
"Thanks..." Aska whispers, doing her best not to slow Ian down in the darkness. Focusing her ears for any incoming attacks.
Then it could get tricky, but I think using rope to lead Aska would be the most effective way to move rather than using a light. 5ft lead might be too risky if it came to a fight though. 10ft?
Unfortunately, Aska probably will need to use a source of light. That said, I'm figuring we'll want to focus on stealth again until we hit Ardis. I didn't really think about it before(I need to look into some kind of darkvision extract for 4th level). Short of Aaks literally keeping her hand on Ian's shoulder, can you think of any way other than carrying a light source? It would rather hamper any attempts at stealth.
Carrying on.
With Ian's site gone, Aska falls back on her own senses to to stay alert for attack. Her thoughts of her newfound friends keeping her moving through the fog.
Aska knows better than to ask questions and follows quickly after him.
"The fog isn't passing either. I don't want to just ignore these lights, but I don't want to get ambushed either." Aska keeps her ears sharp while they decide the best course of action.
"It could just be lingering magic, but I think maybe we should try to burn them just to be safe. We wouldn't wan them to reanimate." Aska says, but she waits to hear Ian's opinion as burning skeletons could take a bit of time.
"Whew...Could have been worse, but it could have gone better." Now that the danger has passed, Aska takes a moment to examine the ghostly lights above their fallen enemies. "Hmmm, do you know what these are?"
Round 8
"Fine!" Aska shouts as she picks up her weapon and swings it upward towards their undead foe, trying hard not to think about the lights from the other dead creatures.
Ummmm, not that I'm complaining, but Aska rolled a natural 1 on that trip attempt. How did it succeed?
Round 7 Right now, Aska thinks she is best served trying to trip their foe. Once she gets him on the ground, his agility won't be as helpful.
And today just keeps getting worse for Aska.
Round 6 Aska quickly climbs over the horse to get into position to attack the skeleton. She decides to try once more for the trip.
Thank the sweet heavenly Buddha. That would have been a bit tricky otherwise.
Aska finds her weapon to be a bit unwieldy for the tight quarters. She considers trying to tumble through to a better position, but thinks better of it. This zombie had proven rather nimble. She 5ft steps away and then uses the opportunity to down her mutagen.
I wasn't as confident about that roll, but no problem. Ian, you're supposed to repost(especially as my target didn't trip).
Round 4 Aska 5ft steps backwards, then sweeps at the undead's legs with her weapon.
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