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Much to my chagrin as a DM we lost one of our players in the third Giantslayer book!

Name: Dravis Montbreeze
Race: Human
Class: Rogue-Fighter
Origin: Trunau
Adventure: Forge of the Giant God
Location: Aduromi's Chapel
What Done It: The DM's overpowering this encounter!

My co-DM and I decided to beef up this particular encounter by adding three shambling mounds as additional vegetable chapel guards. (Our party is pretty overpowered, and big (5 players), so we sometimes beef up what's written in the books)

So poor Dravis (our party's rogue-fighter) who was doing reconnaissance up behind the altar, got swallowed up and digested by the Giant Flytrap while the rest of the party battled shambling mounds. Oh no!

This was our first kill in this AP and we were all pretty devastated (except, ironically, Dravis' player, who was quite stoic, saying "I don't let myself get emotionally attached to my characters").

Upon further consideration, we allowed the character to get resurrected afterwards, with less fuss and expense than usual. This is because my co-DM and I realized that we'd probably beefed up this encounter too much, and we felt badly. We also realized that Dravis' death was pretty pointless... and we'd rather make deaths of PCs epic and/or meaningful to the storyline.

My party is about to become Tomb Raiders and tackle Nargrym's Tomb! I have a quick question about the Greater Brand trap on the front disk-door of the tomb:

The door isn't locked, right? It's simply too heavy to move. So trying to pick a lock (= Disable Device) will be ineffective. And the DC for Disabling the magic trap is really high (too high for my party). So I think they're going to have to either (a) solve the rune-riddle (we have a dwarven cleric for the party so there's some hope for that, despite his low INT) or (b) bash the door down in a violent noisy manner.

Regarding option (b): the book states that the disk-door is warded by an Arcane Lock, Caster Level 10. I read the spell descriptions for Arcane Lock and Knock (our wizard knows the latter spell), and it looks like Knock will temporarily deactivate an Arcane Lock regardless of the CL of the person who cast it. So why is the author telling us that the CL of the lock = 10? What does the CL have to do with it? (It's relevant for use of Dispel Magic, maybe?)

Second question about this door: If our wizard casts Knock and deactivates the Arcane Lock for 10 minutes, does this mean that the door automatically slides open for 10 minutes? Or does it just mean that the spell is deactivated for 10 minutes, and it's still closed?

Happy Holidays All! This week will be our last session before the holidays and I'm trying to find a way to inject some Christmassy element into the Tomb but haven't come up with anything so far...
(maybe Krampus will appear, declare them all as 'naughy' and then attack them as they leave... and Santa will come, declare them as 'nice', rescue them? nah, that's too cheesy even for me...) ;-)

[PS Thanks Adam Smith for the general advice on this book. And well-done, Taks, for getting those maps done for Part 3! I'm not DM'ing part 3 of this book so I don't have to worry about that (but I'll pass on the tips about making details maps ahead of time, to my co-DM].]

Thanks Piccolo for the advice, but it's too late to change Uskroth's armor now. Besides, I don't like tailoring everything to the convenience of the PC's... I kinda like the fact that the halfling has this cumbersome armor on, hehehe.

I didn't read that correctly about Gorum's Thorn... thank you! We have no followers of Gorum in our group so I think I'll just leave this treasure as-is. Although I might change the scimitar to an orc bane scimitar as you did... instead of changing it to a +2 flaming scimitar. That's good advice. And not a minute too soon... they should be finishing the Vault in tonight's session.

Janderhoff is a cool place. Our dwarf character was going to be from that city, in his original backstory; but he changed his hometown to High Helm in the Five Kings Mountains instead (which matched the other characters' backstories much better).

One of our characters was interested in traveling to Vigil as a side-trip, since it looks relatively close on the map... but the rest of the party vetoed it.

Our halfling paladin took Uskroth's armor and, aside from the Righteous Might ability, isn't much of an improvement over his former non-magical chain shirt. The half-plate doesn't allow him to use any of his +4 Dex bonus to his AC, and it reduces his speed to 15 feet (he's riding a pony so that he doesn't slow the party, and is looking forward to getting his mount at 5th level for that very reason).

I think my party will reach the Vault this week. They're a real mob: 5 characters, 4 animal companions, plus Ingrahild. So, I've upped the CR level by adding more monsters. Along these lines, I told them that Ingrahild and her party had only killed ONE of the green hag coven... So I'm going to be throwing Ewigga plus ANOTHER green hag at them if/when they vanquish the brambleblight. [The two green hags are currently masquerading as one of our Druid's grandmother, and the grandmother's wolf companion].

We have two Druids in our group, so I think they'll be pleased with the Vault of Thorns treasure; I'm only making the following changes: the flaming scimitar will be +2 (rather than +1) and Gorum's Thorn will be a club (so that one of the Druids can use it).

I just posted the question today and everyone agreed that because Alter Self is a transmutation (polymorph) spell (and not an illusion), it alters everything about a person, including scent. Makes scents, er, sense!

Hey thanks everyone. Yes of course, the fact that it's a polymorph transmutation spell means that her scent is probably changed. But not to the scent of a specific individual. Luckily (for the hag), the druid's wolf companion has never met her grandmother... so the hag is probably safe from detection by the wolf's nose.... Thanks again!

This question has probably been asked before, but here goes:

I have a green hag NPC who is going to attempt to pass herself off as our party druid's long-lost grandmother. I assume that via this spell, the hag can look (and even sound) like the druid’s grandmother.

Question: Would the druid's animal companion (a wolf) be able to use scent to pierce the evil hag's disguise? In other words, does Alter Self change how a being smells? I don’t see anything in the spell description about this.

Great thread, glad I found it! My party spent yesterday slogging through Ghostlight Marsh, and just entered the Vault at the end of the session.

At the beginning of Giantslayer I insisted that all my players create backstories for their characters. After reading the Player's Guide to the AP, our elven druid decided she wanted to be Silvermane's long-lost granddaughter. Although she'd never met Silvermane before, her parents had told her that he was living in Trunau. So, connecting with him was her reason for journeying to Trunau in the first place. After skimming through the first few books, I allowed it. We played out their touching first meeting during our very first session. Afterwards, their familial connection added poignancy to the party finding him half-dead during the orc invasion, as well as to his gift of the Ghostlight Lantern.

Reading this thread has given me an idea: when the party meets Ewigga, she's going to attempt to pass herself off as our elven druid's long-lost grandmother (!)... in other words, the wife of Silvermane. She'll spout all sorts of nonsense about how she's been trapped in the Vault for years, held hostage by unseely fey creatures. And she'll fill our elven druid's head with promises of retaking the Vault, i.e. reclaiming the "family legacy", and all that... Ooh this is just too delicious to pass up.

I'm looking forward to the Big Reveal:
"I love you, my darling granddaughter... I love you so much IT HURTS!"
(as Ewigga drops her Alter Self, changes back into her true self, and lunges at her)... Mwah-ha-ha! ;-)

I've got one question regarding Ewigga's ruse:
Would my elven druid's animal companion (a wolf) be able to use scent to pierce the evil hag's disguise? Does Alter Self change how a being smells? Even if the spell does change how Ewigga smells, I'm wondering if her wolf companion might sense something's not-quite-right?

My players got through the end of the Battle of Bloodmarch Hill with little trouble. They defeated the catapult-manning orcs pretty easily. Then, on the way back into town (to take out the giant as directed by the militia men shouting at them from the town walls), I had them roll Perception skill rolls to notice that all of the other white graffiti marks in Lower Trunau (as well as the Barter Stones) had been broken apart... so they knew something was up... most likely, the giant had been targeting the graffiti marks.

When they arrived at the Hopespring, the party took direct aim at the two orc handlers (there were only two because they'd acquired so many Resolve Points) first! Which made Crusher go berserk in no time flat... Luckily one of the druids had reserved a Soften Earth and Stone spell, which caused Crusher to sink down into the Hope Pond as he tried to cross it (to get to the PC's). This left Crusher stuck and prone for a few rounds which allowed the PC's to finish him off (by aiming missile attacks at him from across the pond).

At that point, the party was joined by their erstwhile elven wizard, who I ascertained had been studying in the library, deep in the bowels of the Sanctuary, and hadn't even been aware that Trunau was under attack! He had a full complement of spells.

So, I beefed up the CR of the encounters in the Tomb of Uskroth to compensate for the added, fresh wizard. (I got rid of the shadowrats entirely, on the advice of many others who have posted on this tread). Even with the beefed up encounters, though, they blew through the tomb pretty easily. One of the druid's animal companions, a wolf, almost got impregnated by a gryph, haha, but the party killed the bird before it had the chance to attempt impregnation again. Amusingly, the party was all pretty grossed out by the ovipositor (they'd never heard of gryphs before).

The final encounter with Skreed was dramatic, with Skreed confessing that he'd killed Rodrik at the outset of the battle, and then adding "And now I'm going to kill you, too!" I beefed up the Tomb by adding Urnsul to the Tomb (she'd escaped with her Vanish potion a few episodes before). Unfortunately I kept Urnsul and Skreed side-by-side, in adjacent squares, during much of the battle, which allowed them to be stunned by a Color Spray spell and subsequently taken out by a battleaxe crit cleave by the dwarf fighter.

The party enjoyed Grendelsek's note, and the heap of treasure. But I ended the episode there in the Tomb, without giving them all of the information about the geode-map, Skreed's motivations for killing Rodrik, etc. I hadn't read far enough into Book 2 (the Hill Giant's Pledge) to confidently roleplay all of thatthat. The group is now taking a month off (because not everyone can get together for the next month), and I'm going to post an "Interlude" on my Obsidian Portal in the meantime, detailing what happens in Trunau during the days following the raid. I'll also give them a bit of information about where they'll be headed in Book 2. And then, I'll solicit ideas from each of them (via Obsidian Portal and email) on how each of their characters will prepare for their upcoming journey (Book 2). I think that's a good way to keep the campaign momentum going "out of game" during these 5 weeks when we can't get together.

Hi All

I’ve really enjoyed this thread. I’ve been running Giantslayers for a few months now, and I’m glad to know I’m not alone in my misgivings about some of the plot details in these books. (In fact, I’ve made my co-DM read this thread too… it’s been a nice reality check for us.)

We have two DMs and four players. Here’s a summary of our adventures so far:

https://giantslayers-2.obsidianportal.com

I agree that the XP simply doesn’t add up to enough to get the players where they need to be, according to the statement at the beginning of The Battle of Bloodmarch Hill book (book 1). For example, our players weren’t at Level 2 before going into the Plague House. So, we added an excursion to a farm outside town, which was beinga ttacked by orcs, to give the players enough XP to level up before heading to the Plague House.

We also added a second excursion: fighting half-orcs and orcs in a farmhouse basement, outside of town. Briefly, the set-up was this: Omast Frum has fallen in love with another drunk in town, a half-orc named Inez. He knows that his boss Jagrin will not approve of the relationship; and, he’s shamed over letting Rodrik die [our players never fix him of his guilt, or his drinking]. So, he and Inez have decided to elope. Some of Inez’s half-orc friends have convinced her to let them plan the wedding in a farmhouse outside of town. The two of them leave town and then discover they’ve been led astray: Inez’s friends are actually Drethan cultists (Dretha is the orc goddess of fertility and possessiveness), who want to marry the two of them in a Drethan temple and then sacrifice Omast! The characters followed the clues and rescue Omast and Inez (yay).

One plot hole I found was that there are no instructions to DMs about how Halgra and the other Council members react to the players’ news about the halforc conspiracy. My characters kept going to them during the “investigation” phase of the first book in the adventure path, asking them to step up security, because an orc invasion seemed imminent. But all I kept thinking of Halgra to say, when the characters would update her about their progress with the investigation, is: “we’re doing everything we can; we’re always on high alert here in Trunau ”. The players got very frustrated by what they saw as apathy on her part but I couldn’t think of anything else for her to say. More recently, during the raid, the party failed at saving Brinya, so Halgra had to come down from on high, thunderstone and all. She lectured the PCs which made them hate Halgra even more.

On the other hand, they all love Tyari, and Iomedae. The High Priestess was very grateful that they’d cleared the Plague House of baddies, and gave them gold necklaces, and let them stay for free at the Sanctuary (in monk’s cells) for the rest of their time in Trunau.

Speaking of the Sanctuary: I agree with a previous person that Katrezra is a great vehicle for foreshadowing here. Give him a Harrow deck and let him prophesy. I didn’t make much use of him in that regard but he’s got great potential.

With regard to saving Agrit and Sara. Someone asked if anyone had successfully pulled this off. Our female elven druid player did it, with a creative use of Warp Wood. She warped the beam that was pinning Sara and then pulled her out. We all thought that the party tank, a dwarven fighter, would save the day, but smoke inhalation overcame him as soon as he ran in. So the druid ran in behind him, cast her spell, and led everyone to safety (while the rest of the party and their animal companions fended off the orcs outside). I was very proud of them for that one.

Other thoughts about the raid:

-We made sure that all players were Level 3 before the raid began (ie before Rodrik's Funeral. I didn't want a video-game style 'leveling up' in the middle of the raid)

-Kagak of the Rolling Thunder was surprisingly tough for them to beat. Our other druid was nearly killed in that encounter on the tower rooftop. I showed the players the drawing of Kagak and they were pretty impressed/scared by the drawing alone—he looks bad-ass. I used a Syrinscape-derived wardrum soundtrack in the background for this encounter. When they finally killed him (the dwarf fighter landed the killing blow), I turned off the drums and all went quiet, which punctuated their well-earned victory.

-The waves of orcs: My players haven’t had much difficulty with this thanks to lots of healing potions, and a wand of Cure Light Wounds. Also, because my players are relatively new to Pathfinder, I placed two militia men with Omast, behind the barricade. One was trying to sober Omast up. I had the other one quickly explain military tactics to the party: ie, explain how to brace the spears against charging enemies; explain how the logs could be used; etc. I didn’t think my semi-noobie players would really know what to do, so I had an NPC explain it to them. They did very well.

With regards to the upcoming Tomb of Uskroth: I’m not going to let them rest before the Tomb. The druids will be out of spells, but that’s OK; everyone will be completely healed by the time they go in (they have enough wand charges, and I’ll strongly recommend they use them to get completely healed before going in there). Also, I’m having another player join them for that portion of the book… a wizard (evoker) with a full compliment of spells. So they’ll have that advantage, at least. While I’m beefing up parts of the Tomb, I’m definitely getting rid of Shadow Rats. They look unnecessarily complicated… ie incorporeal vs corporeal attacks; ability score drains; etc. I’ll beef up other parts of the Tomb instead.

In sum, we are enjoying Giantslayers very much—although railroad-ish (as Numerator put it), it’s mostly good. I especially like the fact that there are so many strong female NPCs, including a lesbian couple, and lots of half-orcs. Very diverse, very cool, very cutting-edge Adventure Path.

I'm left wondering why not just cast Beast Shape I (or II, or III) on one's familiar to transform them into something else? After all, you can share any spell with "Target: You" with your familiar... and Beast Shape spells are all "Target: You". Right?

Thanks to Pennywit for keeping this thread alive. Have enjoyed reading everyone's account of their epic Stag Lord battles.

Two weeks ago, our intrepid band of four fourth-level adventurers boldly stormed the Stag Lord’s fort in broad daylight:

Cast:
-Female elven druid, JANE
-Male human fey-blooded sorcerer, KHRYSTOS
-Male half-orc monk, TAD
-Female human wizard (diviner), VINCZE (played by me)

Background:
Our party didn't need any coaxing to hunt down the Stag Lord because, in our game, the Thorn River camp was formerly inhabited by a tribe of fey-blooded humans that was slaughtered by the Stag Lord and his men. Our sorcerer's backstory is that he is the sole survivor of that tribe. So, he was out for revenge! Another, secondary motivation was that my character was suffering from Nettle's Nightmare/curse (note to self: never talk back to vengeful, undead drowning victims).

From the very beginning, our party gained a reputation throughout the Greenbelt: calling ourselves the "Greenbelt Defenders", we actively hunted bandits, like a team of superheroes. So, when we finally decided it was time to take out the Stag Lord, we figured a full-on frontal assault was our only option, because we thought that if we tried to infiltrate the fort, the bandits would instantly recognize us.

BUT, on an off-game night, I took our DM out for a drink and mentioned our plan for full-on assault. He laughed at me: "You'll all die!" ...SO we promptly changed our plan: we rounded up stag amulets, disguises, and a lot of booze. We questioned visitors to Oleg's Trading Post and learned where the fort was; that there was a wooden palisade around it; and the current password (which, to our great dismay, was "We Bear The Heads of the Greenbelt Defenders!"). We also scribed a bunch of scrolls; bought some potions from Bokken; and even mail-ordered a wand of Cure Light Wounds from Restov. We were ready.
[Note: We toyed with the idea of burning the fort to the ground, and the idea of poisoning the booze, but decided both ideas were ignoble based on our characters' (mostly lawful and good) alignments.]
[Back-up plan: In case we couldn't con our way into the fort, the druid prepared two scrolls of Warp Wood, to bust our way in through the palisade if need be.]

After locating the fort, we spent a night doing reconnaisance: The druid flew around the fort wildshaped as a Great Horned Owl, learning the general floorplan and spotting the trapdoor to the south. Then our monk, cloaked under a Darkness spell, went to investigate the trapdoor. The zombies were a nasty surprise! But he outran them (and the guards on the watchtowers, though they noticed the zombies, never saw the monk because of my Darkness spell). The DM ruled that the zombies gave up chase after the monk left the hillside. So, we successfully avoided both a fight with the zombies and detection by the bandits.

We camped the rest of the night in some woods a few miles to the west. The next day, before we headed to the fort, my character did a Harrow reading, then used her scrolls to buff everyone with Mage Armor and Protection from Arrows. The latter seemed like a good idea; but as it turned out, because of the Stag Lord's magical bow, the DM ruled later that the Protection didn't work against the Stag Lord's arrows. Oh well.

Our party loves its animals (familiars, animal companions and mounts). So, our druid didn't want to leave her battle-trained elk mount out of this battle. At the last minute, she suggested we take her elk in with us, as a tribute to the Stag Lord: "A stag for the Stag Lord", she joked. Which is exactly how we presented the elk to the bandits. What we DIDN'T expect was that the bandits would immediately want to slaughter and butcher it. (UH-OH!). Within minutes of us gaining entry to the fort, one of them announced that's exactly what he was going to do, and led the elk around back by the reins. Our monk lept up and offered to "help" him.

Here's basically what happened after that, and all of our roles in it:

Monk: Threw the first punch, nailing the one bandit before he killed the druid's elk--but not before the bandit shouted and raised the alarm. The monk then tangled with Auchs up on a walkway. After a few rounds (and a few ki points) Auchs fall down, go boom. He later defeated Akiros in a similar fashion. [Note: Akiros didn't turn on the Stag Lord in our game, as he did in most other campaigns.]

Wizard: After Dovan opened its cage half-way, she cast Web to contain the Owlbear, but was unsuccessful. So, she and her Celestial rabbit familiar lured the Owlbear into the courtyard--and then Levitated up a watchtower, out of harm's way. Owlbear proceeded to munch on random bandits in the courtyard for the next few rounds.

Sorcerer: Dispatched a number of random (non-lieutenant) bandits before finally getting sneak-attacked by Dovan and falling. Sorcerer rejoined the battled within two rounds, however, after being mysteriously healed by the monk's pet cat (long story!). Later, he nearly died again after being shot in the back by the Stag Lord while delivering the coup de grace to Dovan. (Our sorcerer seems to have nine lives.)

Druid: Held Akiros at bay with a number of strategic spells until our monk could take over. She also cleverly attempted to warp the Stag Lord's bow with Warp Wood, but failed, since it's a magic bow. Most importantly, however, she used her Wand of Cure Light Wounds frequently, keeping us all alive in lieu of launching attacks. Her wolf animal companion killed Dovan.

The Stag Lord ended up running into the back courtyard, sneaking past the Owlbear, who was there tearing apart the bandits' horses. The rest of us followed, and were immediately set upon by the Owlbear. After nearly being shot out of the sky by the Stag Lord, the Wizard offed the Owlbear with a Shocking Grasp. The entire party then ganged up on the Stag Lord on the walkway above the Storage Room in a final showdown. Although the monk and the wolf were the heaviest hitters, the sorcerer dealt the killing blow--with a Magic Missile, of all things. And so, in the end, the sorcerer avenged his slaughtered Greenbelt tribe--a very satisfying outcome. In a humorous moment, the sorcerer's owl familiar coup de grace'd the villain, ripping his throat out while simultaneously knocking his stag helm off. (We were all were quite shocked by the hideous face behind the mask.).

Coolest moment: When the druid's wolf, outrunning a pack of zombies, Spider-climbed over the wooden palisade to join the battle in the courtyard below.

MVP award: the Wand of Cure Light Wounds. Runner-up: the Owlbear (for killing most of the low-level bandits).

Follow-up:
After killing the Stag Lord, the party went downstairs to confront the creepy old man in the basement. All of us were battle-weary at that point, so we agreed to try and spare his life. After succesfully calming him with Diplomacy, telling him we meant no harm, he asked what we had done with his son. We simply replied: "You never have to fear the Stag Lord again. He can't hurt you now. Leave this place. Go in peace." So he scuttled upstairs. When we came up after him, he had left without a trace.

In hindsight, maybe that wasn't the smartest move. Judging from the DM's sly smile and cryptic comments, we may have a recurring villain on our hands. (Oh goodie.)

Thanks to Eyelessgame for starting this thread.

Two weeks ago, our intrepid band of four fourth-level adventurers boldly stormed the Stag Lord’s fort in broad daylight:

Cast:
-Female elven druid, JANE
-Male human fey-blooded sorcerer, KHRYSTOS
-Male half-orc monk, TAD
-Female human wizard (diviner), VINCZE (played by me)

Background:
Our party didn't need any coaxing to hunt down the Stag Lord because, in our game, the Thorn River camp was formerly inhabited by a tribe of fey-blooded humans that was slaughtered by the Stag Lord and his men. Our sorcerer's backstory is that he is the sole survivor of that tribe. So, he was out for revenge! Another, secondary motivation was that my character was suffering from Nettle's Nightmare/curse (note to self: never talk back to vengeful, undead drowning victims).

From the very beginning, our party gained a reputation throughout the Greenbelt: calling ourselves the "Greenbelt Defenders", we actively hunted bandits, like a team of superheroes. So, when we finally decided it was time to take out the Stag Lord, we figured a full-on frontal assault was our only option, because we thought that if we tried to infiltrate the fort, the bandits would instantly recognize us.

BUT, on an off-game night, I took our DM out for a drink and mentioned our plan for full-on assault. He laughed at me: "You'll all die!" ...SO we promptly changed our plan: we rounded up stag amulets, disguises, and a lot of booze. We questioned visitors to Oleg's Trading Post and learned where the fort was; that there was a wooden palisade around it; and the current password (which, to our great dismay, was "We Bear The Heads of the Greenbelt Defenders!"). We also scribed a bunch of scrolls; bought some potions from Bokken; and even mail-ordered a wand of Cure Light Wounds from Restov. We were ready.
[Note: We toyed with the idea of burning the fort to the ground, and the idea of poisoning the booze, but decided both ideas were ignoble based on our characters' (mostly lawful and good) alignments.]
[Back-up plan: In case we couldn't con our way into the fort, the druid prepared two scrolls of Warp Wood, to bust our way in through the palisade if need be.]

After locating the fort, we spent a night doing reconnaisance: The druid flew around the fort wildshaped as a Great Horned Owl, learning the general floorplan and spotting the trapdoor to the south. Then our monk, cloaked under a Darkness spell, went to investigate the trapdoor. The zombies were a nasty surprise! But he outran them (and the guards on the watchtowers, though they noticed the zombies, never saw the monk because of my Darkness spell). The DM ruled that the zombies gave up chase after the monk left the hillside. So, we successfully avoided both a fight with the zombies and detection by the bandits.

We camped the rest of the night in some woods a few miles to the west. The next day, before we headed to the fort, my character did a Harrow reading, then used her scrolls to buff everyone with Mage Armor and Protection from Arrows. The latter seemed like a good idea; but as it turned out, because of the Stag Lord's magical bow, the DM ruled later that the Protection didn't work against the Stag Lord's arrows. Oh well.

Our party loves its animals (familiars, animal companions and mounts). So, our druid didn't want to leave her battle-trained elk mount out of this battle. At the last minute, she suggested we take her elk in with us, as a tribute to the Stag Lord: "A stag for the Stag Lord", she joked. Which is exactly how we presented the elk to the bandits. What we DIDN'T expect was that the bandits would immediately want to slaughter and butcher it. (UH-OH!). Within minutes of us gaining entry to the fort, one of them announced that's exactly what he was going to do, and led the elk around back by the reins. Our monk lept up and offered to "help" him.

Here's basically what happened after that, and all of our roles in it:

Monk: Threw the first punch, nailing the one bandit before he killed the druid's elk--but not before the bandit shouted and raised the alarm. The monk then tangled with Auchs up on a walkway. After a few rounds (and a few ki points) Auchs fall down, go boom. He later defeated Akiros in a similar fashion. [Note: Akiros didn't turn on the Stag Lord in our game, as he did in most other campaigns.]

Wizard: After Dovan opened its cage half-way, she cast Web to contain the Owlbear, but was unsuccessful. So, she and her Celestial rabbit familiar lured the Owlbear into the courtyard--and then Levitated up a watchtower, out of harm's way. Owlbear proceeded to munch on random bandits in the courtyard for the next few rounds.

Sorcerer: Dispatched a number of random (non-lieutenant) bandits before finally getting sneak-attacked by Dovan and falling. Sorcerer rejoined the battled within two rounds, however, after being mysteriously healed by the monk's pet cat (long story!). Later, he nearly died again after being shot in the back by the Stag Lord while delivering the coup de grace to Dovan. (Our sorcerer seems to have nine lives.)

Druid: Held Akiros at bay with a number of strategic spells until our monk could take over. She also cleverly attempted to warp the Stag Lord's bow with Warp Wood, but failed, since it's a magic bow. Most importantly, however, she used her Wand of Cure Light Wounds frequently, keeping us all alive in lieu of launching attacks. Her wolf animal companion killed Dovan.

The Stag Lord ended up running into the back courtyard, sneaking past the Owlbear, who was there tearing apart the bandits' horses. The rest of us followed, and were immediately set upon by the Owlbear. After nearly being shot out of the sky by the Stag Lord, the Wizard offed the Owlbear with a Shocking Grasp. The entire party then ganged up on the Stag Lord on the walkway above the Storage Room in a final showdown. Although the monk and the wolf were the heaviest hitters, the sorcerer dealt the killing blow--with a Magic Missile, of all things. And so, in the end, the sorcerer avenged his slaughtered Greenbelt tribe--a very satisfying outcome. In a humorous moment, the sorcerer's owl familiar coup de grace'd the villain, ripping his throat out while simultaneously knocking his stag helm off. (We were all were quite shocked by the hideous face behind the mask.).

Coolest moment: When the druid's wolf, outrunning a pack of zombies, Spider-climbed over the wooden palisade to join the battle in the courtyard below.

MVP award: the Wand of Cure Light Wounds. Runner-up: the Owlbear (for killing most of the low-level bandits).

Follow-up:
After killing the Stag Lord, the party went downstairs to confront the creepy old man in the basement. All of us were battle-weary at that point, so we agreed to try and spare his life. After succesfully calming him with Diplomacy, telling him we meant no harm, he asked what we had done with his son. We simply replied: "You never have to fear the Stag Lord again. He can't hurt you now. Leave this place. Go in peace." So he scuttled upstairs. When we came up after him, he had left without a trace.

In hindsight, maybe that wasn't the smartest move. Judging from the DM's sly smile and cryptic comments, we may have a recurring villain on our hands. (Oh goodie.)

Just joined Paizo. Going to write up a summary of our recent victory over the Stag Lord here soon. Yes I agree: your party did do very well considering you only had three 3rd-level characters. And, really, a badger animal companion named Norbert? Sheer awesomeness.