| Hubris |
So, I've recently started a heavily modified version of Rise of the Rune Lords with an incredibly large and still expanding party (we're up to 10 at the moment, I think). Due to shifting schedules though, we don't often have more than six members in the party, so I'm fine with it. So, with that out of the way, let me get down to why I'm here, on these boards, asking you questions.
A past PC of a friend, Alemnas (C/N Sorcerer 20 with the Protean bloodline/ Oracle 5 with the Dark Tapestry Revelation), is making a return in this campaign in a bid for godhood-- specifically, he wants to be the God of Chaos. As such, I've been writing up some missions for him to give the PCs. The players were due for his first mission right about now, so I decided to have them fetch a magic cube for him. The cube was in some Thassilonian ruins that I had made up which were conveniently placed some miles away from Sandpoint.
Human Gunslinger 2,
Halfling Bard 2,
Elf Fighter 2,
Human Druid 2,
Human Mystic Theurge (Druid 1/Empyreal Sorcerer 1),
Human Flame Oracle 2,
(RotRL NPC) Elf Fighter 2/Ranger 4
Naturally, the PCs were pumped. Three of the PCs already revere Alemnas as the God of Chaos(TM), and they wanted to help him out. There was even promise of rewards!
So they get to the ruins, recognize them as thassilonian with some appropriate knowledge checks, and notice a small igloo-like thing made of webs. As they watch, an ettercap (also readily identified) pops out, sees them, screams, and runs deeper into the ruins and around a corner.
They give chase, eventually lose it, and find themselves at a cavernous hole in the ground. They approach it and realize that at the bottom of the hole it leads to a hallway. They climb down into the hallway and the Mystic Theurge (Druid/Sorcerer who worships Sivanah and reveres Alemnas) sees a trap. He points it out, and the Flame Oracle gets it into his head that he can dig out the pressure plate which activates it. He fails, a bunch of spears pop out of holes in the hallway, and his head gets grazed for minimum damage. He complains that it hurts.
The halfling Bard decides to jump across the spears to the end of the hall alone while the rest of the party gathers at the entrance, and promptly gets attacked by no less than four rats. They would have been a piece of cake if the entire party had been present, but as is, the halfling bard had a hard time fighting them off.
For some odd reason, the gunslinger decided to fire his pistol from 60' away, from behind three party members, through a thicket of spears, and into a rat. However, a 1 and two natural 20's later, he had shot the flame oracle for 32 points of damage. If the Oracle had had a constitution score 2 points lower, he would have died on the spot. The druid ran up, fed him all three of the healing potions that he had on him (rolling natural 1's on all three heals in the process), and decided to stay behind to make sure the now-at-0 oracle didn't get eaten while the party moved ahead.
The party eventually felled all four rats, and moved into the large room that they were in. There were stairs descending 300' into the ground over 150' horizontally. Three of the party (The NPC, the Theurge, and the Elf Fighter) decided to go down, while the others stayed at the top for various reasons. The three at the bottom of the stairs saw that it was:
A large, partially collapsed cathedral. There were two doors at the far back of the room on opposing walls, with a large altar in between the two. Wrapped around the altar was a length of silk rope, which trailed off into a 60' deep hole in the floor, which led into a 30' deep room. They couldn't see anything other than spider webs inside the room at the bottom of the hole. In front of the hole were several broken down pews, obviously in ruins.
The gunslinger came down the stairs, noticing and firing at a bunch of statues in alcoves near the roof of the cathedral. This served no more purpose than to activate a magical alarm inside the hole, which proceeded to blare loud, siren-like noises (to their knowledge, this did little, but to us, it woke up a 5th level CE Master Summoner with a fondness for Medium sized Fiendish Spiders... 1d3+1 of them per summon. We can call him the Trap-Hole Summoner).
The gunslinger decided now that it would be a brilliant idea to go down the hole, and started shimmying down the knotted silk rope. I warned him that ahead would be a largely dangerous encounter, so he shouted for the NPC, the Theurge, and the Fighter to follow him. They did so with glee.
A round of climbing later, he leveled with the ceiling of the room... And was attacked by 4 Giant Fiendish Spiders, summoned as a standard action two rounds before. Did I mention that the Summoner had Augmented Summoning? Anyway, they did some serious damage to him, hitting three times and dealing two points of strength damage to him. Somehow, he didn't fall. Initiative was rolled, perception checks were made, and it looked as if the four of them would have to handle the Trap-Hole Summoner alone. No big deal.
Gunslinger went first, slid down the rope 15', and shot one. Crit. It fell to the floor, dead. Then Theurge went. He tried to climb down past them, but provoked three AoO's, and was knocked to the floor, nearly unconscious already, and with two points of strength damage. NPC went next, climbing halfway down the rope, followed by Elf Fighter. Then THS and his spidery friends went. The spiders went first, climbing onto the rope to attack the PCs while they were at a disadvantage. They knocked Gunslinger down onto the floor next to Theurge, and attacked NPC higher up on the rope. Then, THS summoned 4 more spiders, in flanking position on the floor.
Gunslinger stood up, provoking no less than 4 AoO's, and promptly fell back down again, unconscious. Theurge then stood up, completely ignored by the spiders (who were feasting on the 'Slinger), and decided to distract them with some Entangle (centered on himself). He failed his reflex save, along with one spider. THS, who was on the edge of range for Entangle, succeeded. NPC slashed and stabbed a spider, dealing minimal damage to it with her shortsword. Elf Fighter waited impatiently to move along. The spiders Coup de Grace'd Gunslinger, provoking an AoO, which did little to deter them. Gunslinger died viciously. THS summoned 4 more (my d6 was rolling 5's and 6's all over the place) spiders, also on the floor. 1 of them failed its reflex save on contact with Entangle, but the rest were fine.
Also, Bard finally heard the sounds of contact at the bottom of the stairs. He told Oracle (who had just returned to 1 hit point) and Druid. Oracle healed himself, and they took a move action down the stairs. They now go last on initiative.
Theurge goes next, since Gunslinger is dead. He decides to shoot an acid dart (using his druid 1st level ability) at THS. It misses, badly. NPC kills the spider that was attacking her on the rope, but it takes a full attack action, and she can't move. Elf fighter decides to climb around her, and makes it just into the room.
He drops down onto a spider, rolling well enough to transfer his falling damage to it and succeeding on a simultaneous attack, but still deals minimal damage. Fortunately, he succeeds on his reflex save against Entangle. THS gets tired of more people dropping into his trap, and so casts Black Tentacles in the hole at the top of the room, effectively blocking it off and unintentionally ensnaring NPC in its deadly grasp. The spiders attack Elf Fighter, quite unsuccessfully.
Bard, Oracle and Druid will reach the bottom of the stairs next round. No idea what they'll do then.
Theurge, somehow still conscious, decides to kamikaze now-- things are looking desperate, and he feels as if he's about to die. He casts burning hands and throws one burst of fire out into the Entangle spell before eating several AoO's from the spiders and being knocked into unconsciousness. He's also quite heavily poisoned by now, and has lost 4 points of strength from his already-average score of 10. NPC thrashes in the tentacles, taking more damage, and Elf Fighter slashes a spider, killing it, before grabbing onto the rope and attempting to climb out of the fire. THS moves out of the entanglement and examines the flames, tsking in an annoyed tone. The spiders continue attacking Elf Fighter.
Bard, Oracle and Druid all reach the bottom of the stairs, shouting and waving their arms. It's pretty obvious that things are going badly.
Theurge succeeds on his save against strength damage, ending the poisoning, but fails his stabilization check. Elf Fighter tries to move up on the rope, but is grabbed by a spider and can't move. NPC continues to be abused by the tentacles. THS continues watching, and the spiders begin pulling Fighter back into the flames.
Bard, Oracle and Druid reach the hole, see the smoke, and begin praying to various Gods and Goddesses, but mostly to Alemnas and, for some odd reason, Sivanah.
Here, Bard's player takes me aside and begs me for some intervention. Bard's player doesn't want to lose such a large chunk of the party, so we work out how to fix it.
Bard pulls out his lute and starts playing furiously, and the music takes on a fiendish tone... Suddenly, Bard stops playing, caught up in a vision. A perfectly formed Elf, similar to one seen by other members of the party in various visions beforehand, appears before her. It changes, taking on a devilish appearance, and says in a deep voice, "YOU OWE ME."
A burst of hellfire explodes from her lute, ruining it. It travels down the hole, dispelling first the tentacles, then the spiders, the fire, the entanglement, and all of the buffs on THS that they never got to see. It brings Theurge to consciousness and compels him to draw a dagger as he crawls heavily towards THS, who is stunned at the events. He reaches THS, crawls up his robes, and slits his throat. The two of them fall over-- Theurge is unconscious, but stable; THS is dead. NPC falls to the floor, almost unconscious, and Elf Fighter falls to the ground, heavily injured. The silk rope leading into the room bursts into flame and disintegrates.
From here on out, what happened is relatively unimportant. Gunslinger is going to play NPC while the party works out a deal with Alemnas to get Gunslinger revived, Elf Fighter looted THS, and Druid conveniently remembered that he had just enough rope to tie around the unconscious people to drag up the hole. The players were on the edges of their seats the entire time, there were laughs, there were tears (mostly from Gunslinger and Theurge), there was combat and traps and details and fear... The players enjoyed it.
However, I feel as if there was a way to do that scenario without killing anybody. Is there anything you would have done differently? They're looking forward to exploring the rest of the ruins later today... Should I make it just as lethal, or give them an easier time of it?
Should I make the quest to revive Gunslinger harder? Easier? Should it be a solo adventure, where Gunslinger attempts to escape death? I've never had a PC death before, and since they want to revive Gunslinger, I want it to be memorable and genuinely challenging.
Guys, I need advice on where to go from here. Thanks in advance.