As the party barbarian said: "RIP - Rest in Pieces little buddy."
Search Posts
PC: Logan, Level 4 unchained rogue
Logan (yes, the same thief who encountered the terrible demise described a few posts above) was scouting ahead in the 'Hall of Hanging Silks' and got the drop on Ripclaw. He charged in for a sneak attack and did a good amount of damage, but the return attack from Ripclaw in the next round dropped Logan down to 2 hp. By that point the rest of the party had arrived and Logan's player bet that another good flanking attack, plus some more damage by his comrades would finish of this mutated 'Thunder Lizard'. Logan did hit. And he did do a lot of damage. But the rest of the party did none! The dinosaur retaliated and dropped Logan down to -20. The DM's interpretation of what that meant: Ripclaw sticks a talon into the rogue's belly, bites down on his head and pulls... until the thief is in two pieces. The party have said that they will raise him. Yes... again.
I just used this last week. Thanks so much!
Luna, yeah, I had read through this obituaries thread before running the module so I knew it had already claimed the lives of many adventurers. And it did not disappoint! The players loved it because the final combat against Kyd felt epic, even if they were only second level. Hagor, I did a lot of soul searching about the funding of the raise dead spell, and did consider having Lavinia stump up the cash. But where is the pain in the character dying if their sponsor is just going to bail them out each time? And without that then the suspense is gone - the players only need to fear TPK or their character dying in such a way that their remains can't be recovered. No, the party understood the consequences and made their choice. They will have to catch up down the road, and I will throw in some side quests eg War of the Welded to give them a chance to do that.
PC: Logan, Level 2 unchained rogue
The party took their ambush by Vanthus in their stride and set about exploring the dungeon confidently. Maybe with too much confidence as a series of unfortunate events took place in each room they entered. They accidentally break the dungeon's power source which is pumping the water out. They get mauled by crabs. They slip over in a slippery corridor and get covered in gunk. This was an extended skills challenge to determine how many zombies they would face in the final room. As they failed to the maximum possible extent, they would be facing 12 zombies plus Kyd the huecuva. Yikes! The d20 encounter calculator predicted that the battle would be 'overpowering'. I thought it was a likely TPK. Fortunately the party had a cleric present and had encountered Kyd in an earlier battle so they at least knew what they were up against. They planned well, took out the BBEG first then turtled to let the cleric channel round after round, but the rogue fell in round 7 just as the cleric was finishing off the last of the undead. The party plan to use all the treasure they final in the dungeon to get him raised. I encouraged them to spend the cash on equipment and let the player roll up a new character - I think they are going to need all the help they can get - but they want to do 'the right thing'. :D |