Moonbeam's page

Name: Hornucopia Praxtar
Race: Tiefling
Class: Occultist 12
Adventure: A Song of Silver
Location: E41, indirectly
Cause of Death: Coming back to their base after their initial assault on the temple of Asmodeus, the PCs took some time to identify and divide up the treasure they found, including the content of Barzillai's workshop. Hornucopia was the "lucky" winner of the cursed Silver Raven figurine. Due to the CL19 of the Scarab of Death, she was unable to detect the curse using her Object Reading power, as were her comrades using the more conventional "Detect Magic + Spellcraft" method. The raven animated and tried to burrow inside Hornucopia's flesh and she failed by 1 her Reflex save to tear it away. She used a Hero Point to succeed the save instead.

Name: Drixa
Race: Human
Class: Bloodrager 4
Adventure: Turn of the Torrent
Location: Holding House
Cause of Death: Failing 4 saves in a row against Hold Person

The party attempted to trick the staff of the Holding House using a forged document, but Sabo saw through the party's bluff and a very long combat ensued (25 rounds, plus another 9 rounds against reinforcements 2 minutes later). Drixa found herself facing Sabo, who cast a Hold Person spell on her. Drixa failed her initial will save, and when her turn came, failed again. The party's cleric freed her using Remove Paralysis. On her next turn, Sabo cast Hold Person on Drixa again. She failed her save again. When her turn came, she failed again to escape the spell. Sabo performed a coup de grace on the next turn.

Name: Mist
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Rogue 3/Ranger 1
Adventure: Turn of the Torrent
Location: Holding House
Cause of Death: Being on the receiving end of a critical from a dottari guard's halberd ([1d10+14] x3 damage)

Nothing much to say, over such a long battle, it was bound to happen that one of the heavy-hitting guards would score a critical at least once. Poor Mist was the unfortunate recipient of 52 points of damage.

Both characters survived using Hero Points.

Name of PC: Zalphine Sendari
Class/Level: Alchemist 11
and...
Name of PC: Kalshema Dabunor
Class/Level: Barbarian 11
and...
Name of PC: Nilodi Rinwen
Class/Level: Cleric 11

Adventure: Tomorrow Must Burn
Catalyst: J7 - quasi-TPK to Jaggaki and his underlings
Story: The fight against Jaggaki was quite brutal in my campaign. The party suffered massive damage from a Cold of Cold and a Chain Lightning, in addition to the strikes from the two regular stone giants, who rolled exceedingly well for their attacks.

Zalphine the alchemist was the first to fall, critically failing her save against the Chain Lightning (natural 1) and, immediately after that, getting critically hit (natural 20) by Jaggaki's Bones of Stone.

Nilodi the cleric was the target of a Flesh to Stone spell, failing her initial save by 1. She tried to dispel the effect with her final actions, but rolled too low to succeed and then critically failed (natural 1) her subsequent save and became petrified.

Kalshema the barbarian was very badly wounded (she suffered 169 points of damage on the first round before she even got to act), but made "greater invisible" by the sorcerer. The remaining regular stone giant then succeeded in connecting with both its attacks despite concealment, critically hitting her with its main attack (natural 20), also causing her to collapse.

Only the party's sorcerer remained standing at this point, with only 6 hit points left. She wisely decided to GTFO.

Due to a mix of encounter difficulty and harsh dice rolls, it looks like this fight was the end of this Age of Ashes campaign.

Name of PC: Tabisha
Class/Level: Sorcerer 9
Adventure: Cult of Cinders
Catalyst: C9 - Being critically hit by an eye beam and then lots of AOE damage.
Story: As soon as the party entered the final room, Dahak's Skull shot a beam of fire at Tabisha and rolled a critical hit that scored 70 points of damage.
In the subsequent mayhem, the party was hit with multiple AOE effects from Belmazog and the 2 Dragon Priests: breath weapons and Fireball spells.
Tabisha struggled to stay alive, going unconscious and getting revived a couple of times.
Belmazog's second Breath Weapon of the fight would have slain Tabisha: she rolled a natural 1 on her save and was already Wounded 2. She had to use a Hero Point for a reroll and survive.

Name of PC: Kalshema
Class/Level: Barbarian 9
Adventure: Cult of Cinders
Catalyst: C6 - Wrath of the Destroyer trap
Story: The party failed to notice the trap before it got triggered. Kalshema is the first person affected by it and makes her Will Save with a natural 20.
The trap then rolls for initiative and comes ahead of the entire party. It targets Kalshema again.
This time, she is much less lucky. She rolls a natural 2 on her Will Save, then a natural 1 on her Fortitude Save...
She used a Hero Point to survive.
Strangely, the only other PC casualty so far was also to a Phantasmal Killer.

The Cerulean Teahouse was very dangerous for my party:

Name of PC: Shakawkaw
Class/Level: Tengu Thaumaturge 1
Adventure: The Summer that Never Was
Catalyst: Area C1: Warty's Swallow Whole
Story: Pretty straightforward: Shakawkaw was the target of Warty's bite, got hit, got swallowed whole, went unconscious inside the toad's belly, then died because it took too long for the rest of the party to defeat Warty and cut a way out of his belly.

The party decided to retreat to safety after that encounter. They rested at Old Matsuki's house for the rest of the night and rose to level 2. Returning to the Cerulean Teahouse as soon as they were ready, they faced death again in the very next room.

Name of PC: Fei
Class/Level: Human Witch 2
Adventure: The Summer that Never Was
Catalyst: Area C3: Mo Douqiu's reach AO and bleed damage
Story: The party ended up taking a huge amount of damage from Mo Douqiu because of the reach and bleed damage of his attacks of opportunity. At some point, three characters were close to death and bleeding. Two of them survived (one barely), but Fei bled to death (after getting critically hit twice in quick succession).

Mo Douqiu was a very rough opponent for my characters because they triggered many attacks of opportunity by not approaching him all at once. If they had still been level 1 when they encountered him, it would probably have been a TPK.

These two characters survived by using Hero Points, but I wanted to share my experience with these encounters nonetheless.

I am starting this thread to hear the tales of others who have also faced death in this adventure path.

Please include:
Name of PC:
Class/Level:
Adventure:
Catalyst:
Story:

I just started this campaign and my party consists of:

Arya (Dwarf Ranger): Her animal companion is a panda (same stats as a bear). She is a Southbank Traditionalist and is a close friend of the lawyer Luo Xi Yang and her adopted son Minhwan.

Shakawkaw (Tengu Thaumaturge): He is the son of Kawaka from Cloud Paper House. His relationship with his dad is tense because he prefers chasing occult phenomena rather than getting "a real job", but still keeps close contact with his father via their weekly tea ceremonies in honor of his recently deceased mother.

Fei Sanmi (Human Witch): Daughter of Nadoya Sanmi and older sister of Yuli Sanmi, she is also the physician's apprentice of Dr. Dami. She recently developed magical powers after being gifted a strange cat (her familiar) by the mysterious traveling merchant Shinzo (Folklore Enthusiast background).

Lavendra Nakamura (Half-Elf Investigator): She acts as Willowshore's criminal investigator. Her father was an elven ranger from the Silvermist Lodges, but he left long ago and Lavendra was raised by her mother, "Mama Bao", the owner of a small steamed bun shop. Lavendra is shy and lives in a secluded cabin in the woods south of town (Outskirt Dweller background).

The fleet battle in this adventure was much harder than the one in the previous adventure.

In my campaign, the PCs' fleet won, but barely.

What caused problems for both fleets wasn't so much ships actually sinking, it was morale reaching 0 or lower on most squadrons due to ships getting disabled in their own squadron and/or due to other squadrons doing a mutiny (each time it happens, the loss count goes up by 1).

In the end, the only squadron that remained with morale above 0 was Tessa Fairwind's squadron, and even then, it only had 1 morale left because it rolled a natural 20 on its attack that round (the only natural 20 of the fight on both sides) that raised its morale by 1. Without this roll, the battle would actually have been a draw, with all remaining squadrons doing a mutiny at the end of round 3, in both fleets. Pretty silly... :)

On page 30, there is a mention of seven "Brinewall clues", but I can only find six of them in the adventure: T2, T7, T12, T18, U10, U12.
Are there actually only six of them? Or can someone point out the seventh, I just can't seem to find it in the text.
Thanks!

Name: Orteus Valdemar
Race/classes/levels: Tiefling Medium 13
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Location: C6
Catalyst: Underestimating Galenmir's damage output
Story: The party killed Galenmir and 4 stone giant guards on their first day of exploration of Jorgenfist.
Upon returning the second day, they encountered these slain foes again on level 2 of Jorgenfist, in the long hallway in front of the library. They had been resurrected as Runeslaves by Mokmurian during the night.
The fight was going relatively well for the party, even though they were surrounded by giants on two sides.
Orteus found himself fighting Galenmir by himself while the rest of the party focused on the regular giants on the other side.
Since Galenmir had been trivially defeated the previous day thanks to a Slumber Hex, Orteus didn't really worry too much about facing him alone.
He was surprised when the "Runeslave" version of Galenmir was able to cast Haste on himself to get 4 attacks per round, and was able to bring him from 104 hp to -22 in one round. No criticals, even, just 4 regular hits.

Using hero points, though, Orteus survived for now.

PC: Mitlana Kazrenton
Race/classes/levels: Aasimar Bard 9
Adventure: The Hook Mountain Massacre
Location: Turtleback Ferry
Catalyst: Standing next to the group's highest damage dealer
Story: When the flood threatened Turtleback Ferry, Mitlana heroically saved the schoolmistress and children from the giant snake that was threatening them.
After this final moment of glory for our beloved bard, the party found itself facing the deadly Black Magga.
The Mother of Oblivion's breath of madness caused a confusion effect on the party's high-damage two-handed-sword fighter.
Mitlana resisted the confusion, but was the person standing closest to the fighter.
She figured, once again, that she had a decent chance of surviving any attack from him, as she was once again protected by Mirror Image.
As the rest of the party was trying ineffectually to damage Black Magga, the confused fighter randomly attacked the nearest creature (Mitlana), managed to bypass her mirror images, scoring a critical and a regular hit on the unfortunate bard.
Poor Mitlana was brought from full health to -48 hp.

This time, she had no action points left to escape death, so it was the end of her story.

PC: Mitlana Kazrenton
Race/classes/levels: Aasimar Bard 8
Adventure: The Hook Mountain Massacre
Location: B3 (Infirmary)
Catalyst: Bad luck
Story: This was simply a case of unfortunate dice rolls.
Mitlana rolled high in initiative and entered the infirmary to fight Silas Kreeg ahead of the rest of the party.
She felt well-protected with a decent armor class and her Mirror Image spell.
However, Silas went right after her, hit her with a critical with his ogre hook, bypassing her mirror images by pure luck and bringing her from full health to -28 hp in one shot.

Using hero points, though, Mitlana survived once again.

PC: Gronclaf Deyenak
Race/classes/levels: Human Fighter 7
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Location: The Shadow Clock
Catalyst: The party being stingy with the CLW wand.
Story: While fighting Xanesha atop the Shadow Clock (the toned-down Anniversary Edition version, but still a dangerous foe), poor Gronclaf was hit by a critical from the lamia matriarch's spear.
This pretty much killed him in one shot.
He started the fight 7 hp short of his maximum, because the group's healers didn't want to "waste" too many charges from the group's wand of Cure Light Wounds. If he had been fully healed, he would have (barely) survived the deadly blow...

Using hero points, though, he survived for now.

PC: Mitlana Kazrenton
Race/classes/levels: Aasimar Bard 5
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Location: Fields around the Hambley Farm
Catalyst: Split-up party
Story: Approaching the Hambley Farm, the party unwisely decided to split up to cover more ground.
Mitlana and the group's fighter were by themselves with two guards from Sandpoint. When they were assaulted by 3 ghouls, Mitlana and one guard were paralyzed and their two companions couldn't intervene in time to prevent one ghoul from striking a coup-de-grace on poor Mitlana.

Using hero points, she survived for now.

Name: Alraxia
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Unchained Barbarian 17
Adventure: Vault of the Onyx Citadel
Location: H35
Catalyst: Azaersi
The Gory Details: This one is pretty straightforward. Azaersi got a round of full attacks against Alraxia, scoring 3 hits and 2 critical hits for a total of 362 points of damage.

Using hero points, though, Alraxia survived to wrap up the campaign.

Name: Nestral Oreld and Riglovik Ferrens
Race: Human and Halfling
Classes/levels: Oracle 17 and Magus 8/Arcane Archer 9
Adventure: Vault of the Onyx Citadel
Location: H29
Catalyst: Zanathura's prismatic sprays
The Gory Details: In a difficult battle against Zanathura, the party had to endure three Prismatic Sprays. In addition to HP damage, bad rolls on Saving Throws caused the group's Rogue to be Plane Shifted into the unknown (natural 1 rolled on the save), both cohorts to go insane, Nestral to be petrified and Riglovik to die of poison (natural 1 rolled on the save). Nestral received a Stone to Flesh spell during the fight, but rolled a natural 1 on his Fortitude save and died...

The party was able to kill Zanathura's honor guards, but the naga herself proved too much for them, and they had to evacuate the area with a Teleport spell, hoping for a rematch after they had the chance to recover.

Riglovik and Nestral both used Hero Points to survive these deaths, but those were their last ones available to cheat death in this way...

Wow, nasty, my party also had a lot of trouble in that munitions camp.

Here's a new one from my campaign:

Name: Zutri Bilfrit
Race: Halfling
Classes/levels: Unchained Rogue 16
Adventure: Vault of the Onyx Citadel
Location: B7: War Room
Catalyst: Quivering Palm
The Gory Details:

The heroes rushed to the top level of the onyx tower to stop its imminent destruction. They engaged Scabvistin and his lone companion: a honor guard. Both enemies rolled a natural 20 on their initiative checks, allowing them to act before most of the party. The honor guard struck Zutri with a Quivering Palm, forcing the little halfling rogue to save or die. She needed to roll a 3 or higher to survive and rolled a … 2.

After the rest of the party slew Scabvistin and his honor guard, they were relieved to see that Zutri had actually survived her apparent demise (by using a Hero Point).

Name: Nestral Oreld
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Oracle 13
Adventure: Siege of Stone
Location: Area J17 (Weapon vault)
Catalyst: Double natural 20 for an Attack of Opportunity
The Gory Details: Having defeated the adventure's BBEG just a few minutes before, the party was in a good mood and was just in the process of exploring the last few remaining rooms of the dungeon to "clean up".
In the weapon vault, the Ice Devil Krymous appeared when they tampered with the weapons. Nestral was the first to act and tried to shoot her.
Sadly for him, Krymous had Combat Reflexes, and rolled a natural 20 for her attack of opportunity, confirmed by a natural 20.
The 89 points of damage were enough to kill Nestral despite him being full-HP and having Stoneskin active.

Using hero points, though, Nestral survived to continue the campaign (this being his SIXTH close call with Pharasma so far...).

Name: Riglovik Ferrens
Race: Halfling
Classes/levels: Magus 8/ Arcane Archer 2

Name: Ikrinda Tuzdin
Race: Gnome
Classes/levels: Inquisitor 10

Name: Alraxia
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Unchained Barbarian 10

Adventure: Assault on Longshadow
Location: Area P (Ecru)
Catalyst: Too many enemies with attacks that auto-hit or aim against touch AC.
The Gory Details:
On a tight schedule (3 days before the invasion of Longshadow), the group decided to leave the Oracle in Longshadow to help getting the defenses ready while the rest of the group assaulted the munitions camp.
They infiltrated the camp by climbing above the wall behind P6. Once they reached the center of the ruins of Ecru, the phalanx troop spotted them and sounded the alarm.
A very difficult fight followed. The PCs took a lot of damage from the troops and took a long time to kill them - enough time for the barghests, bombardiers and golems to join the fight.
Already wounded from the fight against the troops (given their auto-hit troop damage), most of the party (the 3 mentioned above plus a barbarian cohort) fell to the bombs of the bombardiers and golems.
The only survivor was the group's rogue (under the cover of Greater Invisibility). She killed one golem and one barghest before having to flee. She was able to sneakily drag Riglovik's body behind cover and take off with him atop her bronze "dragon/griffon" figurine of power.

Thanks to the use of hero points, the PCs cheated death once again, but Ikrinda, Alraxia and the barbarian cohort are now prisoners of the Ironfang Legion...
Leaving only the Oracle, the Rogue and Riglovik to defend Longshadow...

Name: Ikrinda Tuzdin
Race: Gnome
Classes/levels: Inquisitor 9
Adventure: Assault on Longshadow
Location: Area K6: Mutation Lab
The Gory Details: In the surprise round, Ikrinda and the group's barbarian both got grappled, constricted and smothered by the lurkers above (or is it lurker aboves?).
The rest of the group focused their attacks on the barbarian's lurker first, as it was more accessible to them.
Ikrinda couldn't do much to damage her captor or to heal herself. Just as the group killed the other lurker and were ready to come to her aid, she got constricted to death.

Using hero points, though, she survived to continue the campaign.

Name: Nestral Oreld and Miriss Obdelego (his cohort)
Race: Both human
Classes/levels: Oracle 8 and Inquisitor 6
Adventure: Assault on Longshadow
Location: Area H: Remains of Redburrow
The Gory Details:
The trench mist engulfed half of the group in its atrocious acidic and deathly essence. Everyone failed their saving throw against it.
The Barbarian had enough hit points to survive the ordeal, but alas, Nestral and Miriss did not.
Nestral cheated death yet again by using his last hero points, but poor Miriss died for real.

The road to Longshadow is long and perilous indeed...

Name: Taznata (Cohort)
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Druid 3 / Sorcerer 3
Adventure: Assault on Longshadow
Location: Area F: Griffon Kill
The Gory Details:
Taznata tried to use Wild Empathy to befriend the griffons, but committed the unforgivable mistake of confusing them with hippogriffs.
Two of the griffons entered a state of frenzy at the insult and pounced on poor Taznata for 80 points of damage, sending her too deep into the negatives for anyone to prevent her death.

I had not expected this easy-looking encounter to result in any kind of danger for the party.
Those griffons can actually do a lot of damage.

In the picture on page 23, it's only now that I noticed (after reading the adventure a few times) what I assume is a doppelganger in the guise of the Swashbuckler, seemingly up to no good. It's a nice touch!

Just mentioning it in case others hadn't noticed it either. ;)

They did fight the Giant one eyed fey (the positioning of his clothing makes the picture look somewhat inappropriate??). Also it seemed really weak CR 5. It just died very easily and with a whimper.

I hadn't noticed that particular aspect of the picture until I read this, and now I can't NOT see it! :(

That creature did all right against my group, getting in a few solid hits. If he had managed a critical, chances are high that a character would have died.

Name: Nestral Oreld
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Oracle 5
Adventure: Trail of the Hunted
Location: Camp Redjaw
The Gory Details:
Poor Nestral was hit by a bomb from Yissti and immediately after by 2 arrows from Scarvinious, without any time in between the two attacks for him or anyone else to provide any healing. He would have died on the spot.

Using hero points, though, he survived to continue the campaign.

Thanks for the information, everyone.

I live in Québec and I was also charged the handling fee twice in the past 4 months. I'm surprised that the fee is being applied in such a seemingly random manner, and I wonder why it's happening at what seems like an increased frequency lately (just a rhetorical question). I hope we won't reach a point where the fee gets applied to every single shipment.

<---- If it does, this will definitely be the face that I'll make.

2 more PC deaths, very similar to one another.

Name: Fenilan
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Skald 2
Adventure: Trail of the Hunted
Location: Random encounter : Molthuni Patrol
Catalyst: Being an elf
The Gory Details: The Molthuni patrol turned out to be a considerable challenge for this level 2 party, but most of all, the patrol’s level 4 captain with his impressive archery skills, flaming arrows and favored enemy: elf. The first action of the first round of the fight was the captain shooting Fenilan with 2 flaming arrows for 27 points of damage, bringing him from lightly wounded to dead.

Sadly, Fenilan was already out of hero points, so that was a real death.

Name: Nestral Oreld
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Oracle 2
Adventure: Trail of the Hunted
Location: H3: The Striking Shadow
Catalyst: Having a constitution score of 6.
The Gory Details: Here too, the first action of the first round of combat was a deadly blow. Shalra shot a “sneak attack” arrow at Nestral. She scored 17 damage (with 3d6), which brought Nestral from full HP to 1 below negative constitution.

Nestral used hero points to miraculously survive this ordeal, but who’s to say how much longer this very fragile character will be able to avoid death…

As far as I can tell, there's no obituary thread for this AP yet... so let's start with something close to a TPK.

Name: Riglovik, Fenilan, Alraxia
Race: Halfling, Elf, Elf
Classes/levels: Magus 2, Skald 2, Barbarian 2
Adventure: Trail of the Hunted
Location: Event 3: One Stormy Night
Catalyst: The storm was actually one of teeth and claws
The Gory Details:
Earlier that day, the party encountered the centaur Yorc, whose poisoned apples caused the group's oracle to pass out for a few hours. That turned out to be a really fortunate thing for him, because he missed what came later.

While the oracle was unconscious, the barbarian became aware of the approaching storm. The 3 conscious PCs decided to look for a shelter for themselves and the refugees. They encountered the dire wolverine and, despite their best efforts, were quickly felled by the abominable damage output of that creature.

Using hero points, it was decided that the wolverine encounter actually never happened, because Aubrin finally remembered a hunter's cabin nearby that could provide shelter (area J). And so the 3 heroes have a chance to survive another day...

DMs be warned: the dire wolverine is quite dangerous against a group of level 2's...

Thanks for your input, guys.

For sure, a phoenix's restorative spells would make a good alternative to Mother Grim Moon. :)

The Parchlands random encounter table gives the possibility of encountering a Phoenix. If the PCs meet such a benevolent and powerful creature, it could be a great boon to their quest. Perhaps too good.

I have a hard time imagining the Phoenix turning down a request for aid: what else could it have on its to-do list that's more important than saving the world?

Such a powerful ally accompanying the PC's would perhaps make portions of the adventure too easy, though, due to its size, it probably won't be able to accompany the characters into many areas.

I'm also wondering how the seedborn corruption would affect a phoenix. If it becomes infected and dies, and then resurrects... I guess I would have it come back as its un-corrupted self. But if it gets infected again… then it would be in trouble, because it can only resurrect once a year. Then again, it can cast Heal 3 times a day, so it might be able to keep removing the infection (unless I decide it takes Limited Wish to do so, as some others have suggested on this thread... I haven't made my decision yet).

Has anyone given any thoughts to such an ally, or better yet, have they come across such a situation while running their game?

Name: Leoria Ralkantus
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Warpriest 16
Adventure: The Dead Heart of Xin
Location: B4
Catalyst: Too many failed Reflex saves.
The Gory Details: The party had figured out that Ogonthunn was an enemy and began a fight made very complex due to the multiple illusory walls behind which the veiled master could hide and cast spells. Valiantly, the party was able to badly hurt the monster: it was down to only 6 hit points before fleeing back to B4.

From that hiding place, while the party was trying to locate it, coming from B5, Ogonthunn used a Mass Suggestion to convince two party members to “return from whence they came” (i.e. Magnimar)… Alas, those two were the main damage dealers in the party, and they carried the Sihedron.

Knowing that Ogonthunn was very close to death, the rest of the group chose to chase it into B4, where they fought the clockwork golems, with Ogonthunn hanging back and casting spells. Leoria took some serious damage from the golems’ melee attacks, and yet more damage when one of them exploded upon death, so when she was targetted by a Chain Lightning from Ogonthunn, it proved too much and she was dropped to 1 HP shy of her negative constitution. Unfortunately, her turn came up right after Ogonthunn’s, so she failed to stabilize before her team-mates could do anything to help her.

On the bright side, she miraculously survived thanks to using 2 Hero Points. Her unconscious body was carried out when the party made a hasty retreat (yes, they failed to kill the dastardly veiled master), but she’ll be able to accompany them when they return for a rematch.

Thank you for the clarification. :)

Yikes, this adventure is proving quite deadly, good thing that all these deaths are happening in the dreamlands instead of the real world!

Name: Vissiliane Marsh
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Paladin (Divine Hunter) L9
Adventure: Dreams of the Yellow King
Location: P10: Cells
Catalyst: Angry prison wardens
The Gory Details: The party sneakily entered the prison via Dimension Door (appearing straight in the Maenads' room), with everyone under the cover of Invisibility. Thanks to this and Vissiliane's repeated use of Smite Evil, they pretty easily defeated the Maenads, Orsephellius and Ahkrh-Nar.

When they activated the lever to move the huge stone block to access the rest of the prison, though, all wardens of the eastern section were alerted. The PCs waited for a few minutes to see what would happen after the loud noise of the moving stone, unwittingly giving the enemies time to group up.

The party interacted with Kelvetta Brix in P10, but then, when they approached the south section of the room, they ran into a patrol of angry wardens from the east section: Yath-Kheph, Valmina and three Denizens of Leng, who were ready for a tough fight, thinking they would be facing their counterparts from the western wing.

The ensuing battle did not go well for the PCs, between Confusion affecting the Witch and the Investigator, and Searing Light wands almost killing the Magus. Vissiliane was badly wounded as well, and affected by a Slow effect from the Chaos Emerald's Chaos Hammer ability.

Her allies retreated and eventually re-sealed the exit with the lever upstairs, leaving only two of the Denizens of Leng on their side of the prison, but alas, by that time, Vissiliane was so badly wounded that those two denizens were able to finish her off... while her allies fled and gibbered insanely.

During the last game, my player encountered the prisoners in area P10 and wondered: "Why don't they just wake up?" I don't know if it's explained in the adventure itself (if it is, I can't find it at the moment), but can't the people in P10, as well as Nestor in J3, simply wake up and return to Golarion?

I guess it's because they came to the dreamlands via other means than a dream, is that it?

During the game, I thought that *everyone* from Golarion who came to the dreamlands had to do it via dreaming, but maybe (judging from a couple posts earlier in the thread), that's not always the case?

Anyway, I ended up telling the player that the nightmare dragon had some kind of aura that prevented the prisoners from waking up. Thankfully, he hadn't thought of asking that question when he encountered Nestor earlier. :)

It did make for a funny scene in the prison, when Kelvetta Brix blinked at them and went: "Wait... you're telling me that I've been starved, beaten and tortured in this prison for weeks... and all this time... I could simply escape by waking up???? Oh, man!!!!"

I'm reporting three PC deaths today, one that took place a few weeks ago, and two that happened in the last session.
All three are for the same unfortunate character, who still survived thanks to hero points and the fact that two of the deaths happened in the dreamlands.

Name: Quinn
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Investigator L6
Adventure: The Thrushmoor Terror
Location: G11: Court of the Unspeakable One
The Gory Details: The great battle at the end of the module pitted the PC's, Winter, Cesadia Wrentz and her agent Lucky Joslyn against Melisenn, the Byakhee and the Hound of Tindalos.
Unfortunately, the hound proved especially deadly in this fight (having narrowly avoided death in the manor's entrance hall previously), killing both Quinn and Lucky Joslyn.
After the fight, it was decided that Quinn miraculously survived, thanks to using two hero points.

Name: Quinn
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Investigator L8
Adventure: Dreams of the Yellow King
Location: "Bokrug arrives"
Catalyst: Low concentration bonus
The Gory Details: On the battlements, the companions were able to survive the Priest of Bokrug's Horrid Wilting and kill the creature, causing the green idol to fall to the ground.
Bokrug's arrival caused all PCs to suffer from his unspeakable presence. Figuring out that they were doomed if they remained, the companions rushed for the idol and all tried to wake up. Sadly, Quinn, with his mediocre concentration bonus, failed to wake up before being annihilated by the 4 remaining Ib shades, while the rest of the group all managed to wake up...

Name: Quinn
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Investigator L8
Adventure: Dreams of the Yellow King
Location: K2: plaza
Catalyst: Not high enough armor class
The Gory Details: Quinn has the group's best armor class, so he thought he would protect his comrades from the attacks of the Gug. Sadly, his armor class, while quite good, wasn't good enough to allow him to survive two rounds of full attacks from the Gug.

In the real world, Quinn is, mercifully, still alive, but he has developped two separate phobias regarding reptiles and gugs.

Thank you both for your input. I ended up telling my player that there was no guarantee that there would be an available spellcaster of sufficient level to cast the spells he wanted, even in the country's capital. He agreed to do the journey by ship. He also seems interested in investigating the Dreamlands quests. So, all is good.

I'm very close to the end of The Thrushmoor Terror and my player has let me know that, once things are wrapped up in Thrushmoor, he plans on travelling to Caliphas to purchase the services of a high-level spellcaster to Teleport or Wind Walk to Cassomir, with the intention of ambushing Lowls once he gets there.

My first reaction was panic ("He's going to bypass a huge chunk of the third adventure!"), but then I decided that, if he indeed goes that route, I'll change things so that Count Lowls actually used a similar means of transportation to reach Cassomir - keeping him ahead of the PC's. That's one problem solved.

Then I briefly considered something very inelegant ("Yeah, that's a good idea, but the adventure expects you to travel by boat. Would you mind doing that instead?") To me, that would be a case of last resort, because I know he hates feeling railroaded.

I could perhaps recycle a couple of encounters to throw at the party on their way to Caliphas. But still, I worry it'll leave him short on XP and treasure.

Reading the description of Caliphas in Rule of Fear, actually, it seems that the maximum caster level is 5. So no Wind Walk. I could also be mean and block the teleport route as well (either the wizard isn't in town at the moment; or he's never been anywhere near Cassomir). I could use Winter to suggest that going that route would run the risk of not being able to secure a sufficient spellcaster in Caliphas, only delaying the mission further. Perhaps that would work and he would decide to go by boat after all...

Then my next worry (which, hopefully, won't be confirmed in the next game) is that he won't even bother attempting the dream quests to reach the Mad Poet. He already knows that Lowls is after the Necronomicon, which is in Katheer. He already has all the information he needs to jump right into adventure #4 (God forbid that he would actually decide to skip Cassomir and head straight to Katheer!). He might not see the value in bothering to jump through the hoops to encounter someone who revealed information to Lowls, given that he might consider that he already knows all/most of what Lowls learned in the Dreamlands, from the journal found in Iris Hill.

And, of course, that's an even much bigger chunk of XP he'll miss (not to mention some interesting encounters). And, even worse, the PCs would never recover their memories!

I was wondering if any of you had to deal with a similar behavior from your group, and how you handled it? (in a non-railroad fashion)

Name: Tibbira Karina
Race: Human
Class/level: Bard 17

Name: Sarlana
Race: Maftet
Class/level: Fighter 4

Adventure: The Witch Queen's Revenge
Location: M7: Inner Sanctum
Catalyst: Failed Fortitude Saves.

The Gory Details:
Tibbira was supporting her group from afar in the battle against Queen Elvanna, bolstering their attacks and removing most of the evil queen's magical protections with Greater Dispel Magic. Alas, when Elvanna cast Mass Suffocation on the group, Tibbira and her cohort collapsed to the ground, suffocating and at death's door. In the following round, Elvanna cast Chain Lightning and they were slain for good.

Fortunately, the rest of the group was able to vanquish the evil queen and free Golarion from the curse of an endless winter!

(F10)

This revelatory dream has cost me much…

The sacrifice of the minds of my four companions has put them into a fugue state, but they yet live, unable to remember their lives or react to outside stimuli. Now I must turn them over to the warden of Briarstone Asylum, according to our agreement, never to see them again.

Feyia, you treacherous vixen, your sweet touch will be missed, but your absence will allow me greater focus on my quest.

Quinn and Zabedar, I could have used your counsel and stout arms on this dangerous journey, but surely Biting Lash will be able to provide me with slaves and mercenaries just as potent as you ever were.

Vissiliane, little sister, may our mother forgive me for what I’ve done to you this night. I gave you many chances to join me in this endeavour, but never did you aid me, never did you believe in me. In time, I finally grew tired of your sermons and doubts.

Perhaps you were merely jealous? Did you laugh at me, like they all did, those fools? Perhaps I should never have considered you my kin. After all, it’s because of you that my father died, and that our mother <scratched out>became that hor</scratched out> changed.

It matters not.

I have it in me. I can feel it.

I am the chosen one.

(F3)

Envelope found in the library at Iris Hill:

Pharast 6th, 4716
Cassomir

Greetings, Haserton,

I trust that you will appreciate this latest shipment. The dosage has been adjusted as per your suggestions. The research is progressing at a steady pace, thanks to the help of my new assistants. There is much lore to be discovered in Cassomir, as well as beneath it.

I wonder whether that Mad Poet you met in your dream journey truly knows where to find the Necronomicon. My own sources indicate that it is written in Necril. If you can find a way to retrieve it and bring it to me, I can certainly help you translate and research it. I look forward to seeing you again, my old friend, and eagerly await the chance to show you the latest addition to my family.

Miacknian Mun

While preparing some handouts for my game, I became a bit confused by two seemingly conflicting pieces of information:
- In F3, a letter from Miacknian Mun mentions the Necronomicon and its location.
- In F10, the last note from Lowls' dream journeys is the big reveal that the information he needs is in the Necronomicon.

To me, those two seem to conflict: I assume that the dream described in F10 is one that Lowls had during one of his very last nights at Iris Hill, possibly even on the fateful night when he made the sacrifice to the Mad Poet. But then, given travel times, how could Miacknian have already known about the Necronomicon weeks or months before?

To try to resolve this, I changed the handouts a bit to represent that Lowls and Mun had known for some time that the book they needed was the Necronomicon. That wasn't the big reveal. The big reveal was where to find it.

I hope that makes sense...

If so, here are the two handouts I wrote (with a bit of player-specific information, because in my game, one of the PCs is Lowls' half-sister (daughter of Nemira Lowls and Clymes Prett).

I will be starting up TT in 2 weeks. I've been pouring over the story for the last week or so, trying to match up the order of events that lead to the PC's getting locked up in Briarstone, but I'm having a little trouble putting it all together.

I read earlier in the thread that someone was going to put together a timeline and was wondering if anyone actually had yet.

Hi,

I came up with the following timeline based on my interpretation of the first two adventures. Some of those dates are arbitrarily chosen by me, but for the most part, I've tried to stay faithful to what was presented in the books.

Note: my campaign assumes that the campaign begins on Arodus 24th, 4716, and that, five days later, the PC’s arrive in Thrushmoor.

I hope it helps. :)

Moonbeam

======================

~1290 (Adventure 1 p54)
The Chain of Nights is written by the Keleshite doctor and seer Valhadis.

~4000 (Adventure 1 p43)
The first reports of the Briarstone Witch.

4024 (Adventure 2 p63)
Thrushmoor is founded.

4050 (Adventure 1 p5, 43)
The Thrushmoor Vanishing.

4288 (Adventure 2 p65)
Thrushmoor is resettled.

4315 (Adventure 1 p43)
Briarstone was originally intended to be a fort. Its construction began in 4315 and was plagued by accidents. Rumors attributed the tragedy to the Briarstone Witch and claimed that she’d curse or kill any who trespassed upon her home.

4487 (Adventure 2 p7, 34, 66)
Count Pragmus Lowls I builds Iris Hill

4584 (Adventure 1 p5, 43)
Count Haserton Lowls I organizes a cleansing ritual on Briarstone Isle. (Slight discrepancy: On p5, they say it was done in 4596)

4585
Count Haserton Lowls I started the building of Briarstone Asylum on the ruins of an old fort.

~4660 (Adventure 2 p66)
The old chapel in Thrushmoor became cursed due to the actions of the mad priest Causton Creed.

4676 (Adventure 2 p42)
Count Haserton Lowls IV is born

4681 (Adventure 2 p42)
A portrait of young Haserton Lowls IV is taken, with a cat.

4685-06-02 (Adventure 1 p36 )
Ulver Zandalus is committed to Briarstone Asylum

4687 (Adventure 1 p5)
Eliege Losandro begins treating Zandalus.

4696 (Adventure 2 p61)
Death of Count Haserton Lowls 3, Nemira Lowls and Clymes Prett.

4697 (Adventure 2 p33)
The ghost of Clymes Prett begins to materialize in the basement of Fort Hailcourse, and on the anniversary of his execution (Erastus 21st), he can roam the entire fortress.

4697 (Adventure 2 p19 )
The Thrushmoor Ghost (Nemira) begins appearing around town.

4702 (Adventure 1 p36)
Zandalus starts drawing Star Stellae among his drawings.

4711 (Adventure 1 p5, 50)
Lowls buys the PC's from Weiralai in Okeno, as thugs and advisors.

4713-12-29 (Adventure 1 p27)
A PC gets into a fight at the Silver Wagon, then is thrown in prison after failing to pay his tab for too long.

4715-03 (Adventure 1 p5, 36)
Upon visiting a gallery event featuring Zandalus’s dream art—among the works of other patients—Lowls recognized shapes and scenes common to descriptions of the Dreamlands, Carcosa, and, most shockingly, the Star Stelae of his home, Thrushmoor.

4715 (Adventure 1 p5)
In the following months, Count Lowls immersed himself in study of the Dreamlands and began paying visits to Zandalus at Briarstone Asylum. In his observations of the mute’s artistry, Lowls became increasingly convinced that Zandalus explored the Dreamlands each night.

4715-05 (Adventure 2 p5)
A tall hedge appears around Iris Hill Manor overnight.

4715-11 (Adventure 2 p59)
Count Lowls meets Melisenn at the Sincomakti School of Sciences while doing some research.

4716-01 (Adventure 1 p39)
Brenton and Debis Lieklan witnessed their parents being slaughtered by bandits near Hyannis.

4716-04 (Adventure 2 p59)
Melisenn moves into Iris Hill as a servant of Count Lowls. After moving into Iris Hill, she manipulated the obsessed count to more or less give her full run of the estate. She began her service to Lowls posing as a simple assistant and steward, directing the staff in their duties when not taking dictation from the rambling old count

4716-05-20 (Adventure 2 p44 )
Count Lowls gets some alchemical reagents from his friend Miacknian Munn and a letter about the Necronomicon.

4716-06 (Adventure 2 p5)
Lowls fires his staff and nominates Melisenn as his replacement once he's gone.

4716-06-13 (Adventure 2 p5)
First batch of cultists arrive in town, including Risi Nairgon from Absalom.

4716-07-13 (Adventure 2 p19)
For the first time in years, the Thrushmoor Ghost (Nemira) is seen in the streets.

4716-07-24 (Adventure 2 p5)
Magistrate Tillus Padgett becomes very suspicious of Count Lowls and sends a letter to Caliphas, asking for an investigation.

4716-07-29 (Adventure 2 p5)
The second source Melisenn contacted was a group of skum who lived in the waters of Lake Encarthan.

4716-08-08 (Adventure 1 p60)
Winter is ordered to go with Accuser Omari to investigate strange things in Thrushmoor.

4716-08-09 (Adventure 2 p5)
A ship with Weiralai and kuru thugs arrives in town.

4716-08-10 (Adventure 1 p45)
Wren Elbourne is committed to Briarstone Asylum.

4716-08-11 (Adventure 1 p35)
Count Lowls tells administrator Losandro that he has a cure for Zandalus.

4716-08-12 (Adventure 2 p5)
As the cultists, thugs, and monsters arrived, Thrushmoor’s citizens began reporting their fellow townsfolk going missing. Melisenn and her cult were snatching a dozen citizens off the street to be sacrificed to Hastur and power the Star Stelae.

4716-08-13 (Adventure 1 p35, Adventure 2 p5)
Count Lowls shows administrator Losandro the Chain of Nights.
He also made contact with the Mad Poet, who promised to show him the way to the lost city in exchange for the “sacrifice”.

4716-08-14 (Adventure 2 p5)
The Count makes his sacrifice to the Mad Poet.

4716-08-15 (Adventure 1 p35 )
The PC’s are committed to the Asylum.

4716-08-15 (Adventure 2 p5)
Lowls delivered the PCs to Briarstone Asylum before leaving on a ship headed to Cassomir, all before dawn broke.

4716-08-16 (Adventure 1 p60, Adventure 2 p6)
Royal Accuser Omari arrived in town with a small group of investigators—including the Pharasmin cleric Winter Klaczka, intending to keep a low profile until she had a clearer picture of the situation. Instead of visiting New Chapel, the Pharasmin church in town, Omari met with Cesadia Wrentz of the Sleepless Agency and requested that the office be the rally point for her and her investigators. Omari organized the party that left to investigate Briarstone Asylum, and asked for an audience with Melisenn Kororo, a request that received no answer.

4716-08-17
Winter arrives at the Asylum and waits for a longer meeting with the administrator.

4716-08-17 (Adventure 1 p5, 6, 35, 59, 61)
Dr. Losandro performs the ritual which frees Zandalus. The results were almost immediate: Zandalus spoke to Losandro for the first time in their long doctor-patient relationship. Then, all hell breaks loose.

4716-08-17 (Adventure 2 p21)
Melisenn summoned Tilsitari shortly after Lowls's departure.

4716-08-18 (Adventure 2 p5)
Skum infiltrate Fort Hailcourse.

4716-08-18 (Adventure 2 p6)
At the same time, disturbing murals depicting the black skyline of a dark city under a yellow sky began to appear on random walls of Thrushmoor’s buildings.

4716-08-18 (Adventure 2 p11)
Daridella arrives in Thrushmoor, asks to speak to Count Lowls, is initially turned away by his toughs.

4716-08-19 (Adventure 2 p6)
When a delegation of concerned citizens went to Iris Hill to seek support from the count, they found he was gone. Melisenn Kororo, now in charge of the estate, refused to help, advising the citizens to wait for her master’s return.
Instead, the townsfolk went to Fort Hailcourse to see if the magistrate could help protect the town. The townspeople were sent away.
Deprived of their traditional leadership, the population begged the Sleepless Agency to take charge of policing the town. Leader of the agency Cesadia Wrentz took careful notice of the events, and suspected that something big was afoot, but she didn’t have enough agents to take on the challenge.
Warned by Cesadia Wrentz about the shady reputation of Lowls’s minions and the danger that invading Iris Hill might pose, Omari decided to go first to Fort Hailcourse in order to force an inspection and enlist the support of the stubborn Constable Cesyll. When Omari went to the fort, however, her group was ambushed and overwhelmed.

4716-08-20
In Briarstone, Father Setrakian and some of the asylum survivors get slain/captured by the doppelgangers.

4716-08-20
Thrushmoor’s priestess of Pharasma disappears.

4716-08-20 (Adventure 2 p11)
Daridella makes contact with Melisenn.

4716-08-21 (Adventure 2 p37)
Cultists Asa and Daelene (E3) came to Thrushmoor, curious about the scandal that an accuser would cause.

4716-08-22 (Adventure 1 p17 )
The Argus Wall materializes in Briarstone.

4716-08-22 (Adventure 2 p6)
The artist Lelwyn Hasok reported that the priestess hadn’t shown up in the chapel for 2 days, and when he went to her residence to check up on her, no one answered. Lelwyn tried to report this disappearance to the constable, but was turned away after being told the event would be noted and investigated in due time. Since he’s a newcomer and not well liked by the townsfolk, Lelwyn had no one else to turn to, so he reported the missing priest to the Sleepless Agency and returned to his studio to work.

4716-08-24
CAMPAIGN START: The PCs wake up at Briarstone asylum.

4716-08-24 (Adventure 2 p45 )
The Star Vampire arrived at Iris Hill (after the activation of the Star Stelae) and was befriended by Melisenn.

4716-08-25 (Adventure 2 p10 )
Local fisherman Toli Remsatter noticed a glowing light in a small cave a mile out of town. Caught up in the fear sown by Elgrior Nasmeth, the angler began to suspect that the light he saw means the Briarstone Witch has returned to once again take everyone in Thrushmoor into the bay. Later, Toli recounted this theory over drinks and cards at the Stain, spreading the fear to other patrons and thus throughout town.

4716-08-25 (Adventure 2 p41)
Cultist Gorwyn (E14/F1) came to Iris Hill.

4716-08-26 (Adventure 2 p12)
Two farmers are reported missing. (They were captured by Daridella to feed her pets)

4716-08-27 (Adventure 2 p41)
Cultist Gorwyn (E14/F1) became trapped by the Sepia Snake Sigil.

4716-08-29
The PCs arrive in Thrushmoor.

Wow, this thread has been pretty quiet lately!

Here's a new one...

Name: Izelu Pirettio
Race: Human (Varisian)
Class/level: Alchemist 12
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: D2: Underground library
Catalyst: Failing both saves against Ricle Peakes' Phantasmal Killer.

Fortunately, using Hero Points, Izelu survived this "minor setback" and will continue his adventuring career.

Name: Kiara Karina
Race: Human
Class/level: Slayer 10
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Location: Event 4: Unleash the Dracolisks
Catalyst: Too many allies petrified by Dracolisks

The Gory Details: The fight against the Dracolisks did not go well in my campaign. The combination of two enemies having petrification gazes and flight was quite difficult to deal with.
It almost turned into a TPK.

The group's Brawler got petrified early in the fight, so a lot of the group's damage potential went away.
The Witch and the Bard tried to handle one of the dracolisks, but due to lucky saving throws, the Witch's hexes did very little, and eventually, the Witch got petrified as well.
The Slayer was able to wound one of the dracolisks so much that it fled (along with its precious blood that could have returned the Brawler to flesh), but, by the time she fought the Dragonkin who had been hanging back, she was very low on hit points, and got killed by his melee attacks.
The Bard was the only survivor... she fled into the Commander's tower with the witch's familiar, and they basically hid for the rest of the battle.
Thankfully, they had accumulated enough Victory points to ensure a Victory in Spurhorn's defense... even though they did not contribute at all in the last 2 encounters.

Given that half the group is petrified (and that they don't have access to Dracolisk blood), I decided that the elder seer Jarilne is able to turn them back to flesh once the battle is over.

Name: Kiara Karina
Race: Human
Class/level: Slayer 7
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: Just outside Baba Yaga’s hut
Catalyst: Too many giants

The Gory Details: So the encounter with the frost giants outside of Baba Yaga’s hut seems to be written as if expecting that it will be an easy one for the PC’s. I guess that depends how the giants act. Maybe they’re supposed to ignore the PC’s entirely, and focus only on attacking the hut?

Anyway, although the hut proved to be a big help in the fight, the giants were focusing about half their attacks on the hut and half on the PC’s. Kiara dealt a lot of damage, which, unfortunately, made her a high-priority target for the giants. The Witch and Bard in the group used hexes and spells to try to defend Kiara, but alas, one of the giants was able to hit her despite being blinded by Glitterdust. Poor Kiara collapsed to the ground, well past her constitution score in the negatives.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. :)
(Sorry for the late reply, I haven't checked this board in a while :( ).
Are you still playing this adventure?

Name: Leoria Ralkantus
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Warpriest L10
Adventure: The Asylum Stone
Location: C4, Stables
Catalyst: Evil dice
The Gory Details: Leoria's pretty decent armor class of 28 was of no use in this encounter, since the Pale Stranger's attacks resolved against her touch AC of 12.
Over its six attacks, the Pale Stranger got 3 confirmed critical hits and 3 regular hits.
Leoria took a total of 202 points of damage, exactly double her current hit points.

That is really, REALLY cool!
Good job!

Name: Uobko
Race: Human
Class/Level: Brawler 7

Name: Athyra Crinhouse (Cohort)
Race: Human
Class/Level: Hunter 5

Name: Nkechi (Cohort)
Race: Human
Class/Level: Cleric 5

Adventure: City of Seven Spears
Location: E5, Isle of Shadows
Catalyst: Evil d6 and d8's.
Gory Details:
The PCs' expedition reached Saventh-Yhi near the end of the year. After a few days of exploration, a great feast was held in the camp to celebrate the new year. None knew then how tragic the events of Abadius 1st would be.

The following day, the PC's ventured into the forsaken ruin and were soon beset by shadows. Alas, during the fight, the shadows rolled quite high on their d6's and d8's to determine strength damage. Very quickly, both of the cohorts (Athyra and Nkechi) were slain, and the fact that they soon reappared as shadows, to be slain again by their former leaders, only added insult to injury.

Uobko, the group's brave Brawler, stood his ground against the Greater Shadow, trying to avoid death one last round as he was down to 1 point of strength. But alas... he was eventually slain, too.

Fortunately for him, PCs' have Hero Points that they can use to escape some deaths. So he "miraculously" survived.

Jaji, Athyra's raptor pet, screamed when his mistress died. Such a wretched sound had never before been uttered by the reptile. The poor creature fled the ruins, and was never seen again...

Do we know what source book this thread made it in to, or which one it's going to?