Ol' Fart's page

My group finally managed to bring Reign of Winter to the end, including epilogue, finishing on 18th level. It has taken us little over 3 years of playing in RL, which translates into 94 sessions each lasting 3 and half hours on average. This is a big deal since it's the first campaign/AP ever that we managed to play from beginning to end. Along the way one player dropped out, two more joined, some PCs were retired, but for the most part group constitution was constant.

Anyway, I'm long overdue on reporting two more PC deaths, last session was played 7 months ago. Both deaths happened during the very last leg of the final module. I heavily modified most of encounters within various demiplanes of Dancing Hut, but tried to keep true to the spirit of the story. Major difference to the original module were way more proactive antagonists - with craploads of Irriseni invaders within Hut, and several opposing adventuring parties trying to locate pieces of Baba Yaga's essence. They were able to do that without need to pass Vigliv's tests simply due to Queen Elvanna handing them a number of "pass keys" for various locations within Hut. Similarly, party was allowed to visit various demiplanes in any way they chose; they even had the opportunity to end AP without going through Elvanna by using Anastasia's blood to unlock one of matryoshka's layers (unfortunately for them, Nazhena Vasiliovna managed to escape with the ritual dagger during the foray on the Island of Buyan, so they would still miss one part of Baba's essence). Elvanna herself proved to be somewhat of push-over, despite being buffed by several mythic levels (freedom of movement+true seeing+communal resist energy FTW; plus, Aroden's spellbane is horrible, horrible spell, even when nerfed).

Dervish's and ranger's death were the final two, with total tally being 13 PC deaths. So, in order of occurence...

Name: Rosom Sigurdsson
Race: Human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: Dervish bard 16/Urban barbarian 1
Adventure: The Witch Queen's Revenge
Location: Ancient Stairs (A9, Grandmother's Cauldron)
Catalyst: angry. trapped demon
Gory details: For this demiplane I switched out Infernal Crocodile (which is very underwhelming mini-boss for this level of play) for unique demon called Princeling Vavakian (combined stats for vavakia demon and Infernal Crocodile, with couple of tweaks), a creature trapped and bound by Baba Yaga millenia ago. Demon was hiding within pool of water and promptly summoned two glabrezu as soon as the party approached on phantom steeds via Infinite Spiral. Wanting to acquire matroyshka containing Baba more than anything, it was hostile from the get go - so the party elected to simply bypass him by running straight for the portal at the top of stairs. They all made it, except for dervish who failed Will save vs glabrezu dazeing aura and battle oracle who got his steed and flight dispelled. Unfortunately for dervish, he was the one nearest to Vavakian and got swallowed whole. The unholy energies within demon's stomach would have dissolved him utterly if not for Baba's boon which bestowed upon him breath of life. This gave him a single opportunity to escape - which he did by critting his way out of stomach, only to get power word stunned moments later. At that point, battle caster managed to reach him, pick him up and run like hell for the portal, getting away just barely.

Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: Human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 17
Adventure: The Witch Queen's Revenge
Location: Ancient Shrine (M1, Witch Queen's Kurgan)
Catalyst: the obligatory anti-party fight
Gory details: backed up by druidic taiga giant the party hacked, burned, shot and disintegrated their way through Irriseni ice mage cadre riding boreal yrthaks, several Cold Sisters, storm giants, horde of two-headed winter worgs, entrenched Russian soldiers armed with rifles and mortars, plus three pale snipers housed within reinforced guard towers, and finally gained access to the Witch Queen's kurgan. Within the first and biggest room they squared off against Chillblight Crazies - NPC adventuring party consisting of inquisitor Preacher Xerafina, barbarian spriggan, Nazhena Vasiliovna, changeling priestess of Mestama, half giant psyhic ranger with wolf companion and handful of supreme ice golems. Plus several ice mages for good measure. Always outnumbered but never outgunned, "Sons of Heldren" also defeated these servants of Elvanna. However before being massacred Crazies managed to down party's ranger. Yuri got critted by falcata wielding half giant ranger all the way to -40 hp, at which point Baba's boon triggered and breath of life restored him back to the world of living.

Then again, there's no reason why hemisphere should be created horizontally rather than vertically, which to me seems the way designer intended. Of course, this only occured to me after the session - during battle, Rasputin simply landed and backed away closer to corridor (after destroying dervish).

Continued fatalities' list of adventuring party called "Sons of Heldren".

Several days ago we finally started last chapter of this magnificent adventure path, 76 sessions in, two and a half years of RL time. After selling off ungodly amount of loot acquired in Akuvskaya Prison, Zilvaazarat delivered a crapload of purchased items to PCs. One very important item included was true resurrection scroll, which was promptly used to revive party dervish after his most unfortunate demise 4 days earlier (in-game time) within Called Down Monastery.

This marked 5th PC death in 5th module alone, and 5th fatality by this same player. There were 11 PC deaths in campaign so far, with number rising up to 16 fatalities when allied NPCs and near-deaths (averted by "creative" use of hero points) are included.

Name: Rosom Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: Dervish bard 13/Urban barbarian 1
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: Thrice-Tenth Presbytery (H6)
Catalyst: Mad Monk
Gory details: the party finally cornered Rasputin within Akuvskaya Monastery and epic struggle unfolded within presbytery. Mad Monk was supported by wounded Seraphina, two surviving nosferatu priests, last surviving shadow demon, with pale sniper on party's heels. With all that, antilife shell still proved to be the most annoying obstacle, so when Rasputin hovered above battleground, the question of its hemisphere's orientation arose. And Mad Monk's (...cough... GM's... cough...) plan was found lacking - Rosom Sigurdsson was the one to spot the flaw and the one to exploit it, dancing right into Rasputin's reach, below his feet. Unfortunately for dervish this made him prime target - on the next round Rasputin corrected his mistake and at the same time evaporated Rosom with destruction.

Another month, another PC death.

I continued GMing regularly after several months of hiatus during which we played only a single session. The story reached the point where they're calibrating World Anchors - the party managed to clear out 3 out of 4 towers while annihilating two thirds of Akuvskaya defenses (there's currently only 4 troops left, including reserves; also they smashed 6 out of 8 tanks). However, two Anchors got damaged by grenades and flamethrower which resulted - and they're not fully aware of this - in opening up the rift to First World. Various fey are starting to pour into Material Plane and attacking beleaguered Akuvskaya defenders, but they'll also present problems to PCs - especially since "certain mortals stole Dancing Hut right beneath their noses" all the way back in Whitethrone...

Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 14
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: at the World Anchor (C3, NW)
Catalyst: trench zombies... or should I say zombie sharpshooters
Gory details: lacking wizard for the most part (since he's invisibly calibrating World Anchors, which takes 2 minutes per Anchor - he needs exactly 20 on d20 to succeed with Engineering check, and thanks to late Viktor Miloslav's input, he's able to "take 20"), battle oracle, dervish, cleric of Abadar and ranger took on perimeter defenses head-on, commando style. Which means approaching by flight or teleportation, under cover of invisibility then pounding and shooting stuff until they stop moving, with oracle occasionally bombarding enemies with flamestrike. And it would have worked so fine if I hadn't rolled prodigious amount of natural 20s, enabling me to hit them hard and often, despite bullet shield and cover. Being the party DPSer as always, Yuri was targeted the most: his hit points went from full to single digits several times. After some time party decided to retreat, regroup and heal up with wands of cure light wounds, since they were spending their main healing spells like they're going out of fashion. Flying between covers, Yuri got hit 5 times by a squad of trench zombies, while in midair. -10 hp turned to dead after falling down 20 ft. Luckily for him, both oracle and cleric were close by - former revived him with breath of life and latter got them all out of crossfire by dimension door.

As per designer's notes, I try to make encounters in Akuvskaya prison as dynamic as possible, with defenders reacting to PCs actions (trench & tower defenders being the obvious exception).

This includes Rasputin himself, whom I buffed up with couple of mythic tiers, truly allowing him to be ever vigilant "All-Seeing Eye" the adventure assumes he is. They encountered him 4 times already: first and second time in the village and abbey respectively (as per book); third time supporting the outer perimeter defenses (also as projected image); and finally when Mad Monk attacked them in the Hut, using astral projection.

This retaliatory attack was provoked by several factors: PCs managed to revive Viktor Miloslav, abduct Anastasia, destroy Radimir, find blueprints to World Anchors and clear out the third of outer perimeter defenses. All in a span of 24 hours. So when they retreated back to the relative safety of Dancing Hut in the evening, Rasputin struck - and he brought several friends along. Shadow demons, all the surviving yeti trackers and polkovnik Lavrenti. Just to be sure, two animated tanks were also parked outside to pick off stragglers. Once the battle was joined, Lavrenti was specifically tasked with retrieving Anastasia and planeshifting away with her. The rest of the enemies, Rasputin included, proceeded to wipe out "Sons of Heldren". Blazing heroics by PCs and several timely critical misses by enemy carried the day, but not without losses...

Name: Ancalagon Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: bloodrager 1/Spirit guide oracle of battle 13
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: coffin room (A7)
Catalyst: zemlemers

Name: Rosom Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: Dervish bard 13/Urban barbarian 1
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: coffin room (A7)
Catalyst: Mad Monk

Gory details: with AC 31 and several mirror images, Rosom was tanking several yetis and shadow demons at once, with Rasputin casting spell after spell at him. After spending his last hero point to avoid being annihilated by destruction (added +4 on save and turned 170 dmg to barely 10d6 dmg), Rosom was unable to resist terrible remorse which negated his offensive potential and allowed yetis to finally take him down. Rasputin was about to use death knell on fallen dervish, when Ancalagon finally managed to cut his way to brother's side, drawing upon his rage power. Oracle then proceeded to beat Rasputin's astral projection within inches of death (Mad Monk was finished by cleric's spiritual weapon few seconds later), whereupon he was rended into shreds by the last surviving yeti (dropped into negative... stopped raging... dead).

This was the last session we had, and Ancalagon is still waiting to be resurrected. This encounter had one more casualty...

Name: Viktor Miloslav (NPC)
Race: human
Classes/levels: expert 10
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: coffin room (A7)
Catalyst: Mad Monk again
Gory details: at the start of the battle he got trapped within shadow demon's shadow web, unable to run away. Also unable to avoid Rasputin's destruction, which finished him off - this time for good.

To tell you the truth, I completely underestimated bogeymen abilities.

Two of them were almost too big of a bite for the party of three - with oracle dead and dervish frightened, it was up to conjurer to deal with them solo. Ulfen conjurer is played by methodical and resourceful player - after going invisible he split the room in two via wall of force, in order to protect incapacitated comrades. Then he buffed himself with spell turning and see invisibility, and proceeded to elegantly remove hostiles by disintegrate and suffocation. Afterwards he dressed himself in posh clothes from strangled bogeyman (hat included) - since he (somewhat rightfully so) considers himself "THE bogeyman", being all elusive and deadly.

My gaming group is currently killing their way through 5th module. So far it has been the most deadly adventure they have experienced. As a GM I completely stopped pulling punches - they're adventuring party of five, well-optimized, with cleric and oracle. No challenge should be too hard for them - or should it?

Ancalagon is older step-brother of the hapless dervish that was already featured on this obituaries. He's a heavy-hitting battle oracle capable of surviving things that would finish off less optimized characters. He always has a trick up his sleeve, be it an immediate spell, save re-roll, magical talisman or weapon made of special material. His backstory includes military training, father issues and meddling with fiends of Lower Planes. He is one of the original three adventuring "Sons of Heldren" - and his time to die has finally came...

Name: Ancalagon Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: bloodrager 1/Spirit guide oracle of battle 11
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: gingerbread hut (A2)
Catalyst: bogeymen
Gory details: following Dancing Hut's transportation from Triaxus to Siberia, ranger and cleric were missing (one being stuck in a vision of another time, the other trapped inside magic mirror). The rest of the party started searching for them, leaving domovoi gulag and venturing straight into gingerbread hut. Although Ancalagon managed to shrug off effects of suggestion trap and deepest fear aura, he was affected by bogeyman's crushing despair - which made him especially susceptible to phantasmal killer on the next round. Overcome by pure dread, oracle dropped dead. His visit to afterlife was brief as Baba Yaga's spectre (and hero points) took him away from Moloch's throne and back to the world of living.

Once the PCs were out of the Hut and located Akuvskaya complex, ranger Yuri was again on the receiving end of GM's stick - this time in the form of bullets and grenade shells...

Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 13
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: edge of no-man's land around Akuvskaya prison
Catalyst: animated tanks... not once
Gory details: after PCs encountered pair of armed steel machines, their first instinct was to hide behind Dancing Hut or go invisible. But not Yuri. After witnessing his fellow companion cleric being blown off his feet by direct hit from Hotchkiss 6-pounder cannon, HIS first instinct was to start raining magical arrows on tanks - so tanks responded in kind. 5 hits (and 2 crits) later, Yuri was down to -43 hp and dead as a door nail - or he would be unless two hero points fixed him back.

Ulfen Yuri, called the Wanderer, was reliable party's shooter ever since they rescued him from baccae inside Endless Forest, in Whitethrone Market Square. 4th module was especially unforgiving for him - first he got electrocuted, and later on maimed by dragon's bite...

Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 10
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Location: outside the walls of Spurhorn
Catalyst: ceustodaemon sentries
Gory details: after establishing peaceful contact with Bescaylie, the party decided to join in the defense of Spurhorn. They were trying to sneak in under cover of invisibility. Although frost drake patrol failed to detect them, it was not the case with daemons. Evil outsiders hit them with dispel magic, which managed to dispel Yuri's air walk - Ulfen dropped down like a brick, for 17d6 falling damage. He wasn't knocked out outright; daemons converged and dropped him in negatives very soon after. Battle oracle made aerial charge with blessed greatsword on a daemon trying to finish off Yuri and killed it on spot. However, standing above unconscious comrade, oracle was targeted by another ceustodaemon's electric breath - which did little damage to him but unfortunately crispified poor Yuri. Two hero points spent and archer was back from -28 hp to -1 hp and stable.

Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 12
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Location: Ivoryglass (D20)
Catalyst: very angry & very old white dragon
Gory details: second true dragon in AP, another PC kill. During protracted battle with Yrax, Lord of the Howling Storm, Yuri was the one dealing the most damage (thanks to instant enemy and crapload of other buffs). This also made him dragon's primary target. After already spending his last hero point a round before to get away from Yrax's full attack, Yuri was unable to avoid Flyby chomp reinforced by Power Attack and Greater Vital Strike for grand total of 77 dmg (!). Ranger's crushed body fell on the ground (-37 hp) where he was promptly revived by cleric's breath of life.

As before, stay tuned for more tales of mangled PCs...

Wow, that was intense read. Cool backstory, Kileanna.

As for Jedediah - player worked with me extensively to incorporate him into AP. We even gave his former character compelling reason to stay behind in the Dancing Hut (Rosom was in love with certain forlarren spy, whom he entrapped in order to find a way to "melt her cold heart and make her love him"). Jedediah was able to venture outside the Hut for prolonged periods of time thanks to remove curse being cast on him every couple of days. There was even a sidequest in Vurnirn where he was able to acquire remove curse wand.

Concerning Artrosa, I had problem with badly written up antagonist relations. So first I made Jadrenka beholden to Caigreal in a certain way - she couldn't make herself kill the hag mother, so she was trying her best to uphold her duties as daughter and as the Warden. This gave Caigreal an opportunity to force her completely into submission by emotional blackmail and physical torture. Jadrenka wasn't about to let her do that willingly, so the coven manipulated Vsevolod into helping them defeat Artrosa's warden. Caigreal's ultimate plan was to become Warden, turn Jadrenka into annis hag and then unite Artrosa's inhabitants in order to defeat Kostchtchie's invaders. Marislova tried to warn Jadrenka about her mother's intentions, so they had a row after which Warden locked her lover away.

Before PCs managed to disentangle this web of intrigue and help Jadrenka, they had interactions with her pretty much as presented in AP, but I made those encounters a sort of awake dreams which Jadrenka used to request their help and warn them of Vsevolod's intentions.

Continued list of (near) fatalities of the group I named "Sons of Heldren". Three core characters were natives of Heldren - battle oracle, conjurer and dervish - so it seemed fitting.

Shortly after beginning 3rd module, dervish player (let's call him Jim) decided to temporary retire his old character. Jim instead created Iobarian witch hunter with Alkenstarian musket - this character replaced Ratibor as the cursed guardian of Dancing Hut. He also had story arc which revolved around obtaining arcane cookbook and lifting Baba Yaga's curse - which ALSO allowed Jim "a way out" if this character's build turned out to be unreliable due to misfire rules (which it very much did).

To no ones surprise, Jim's new character also kept dying in spectacular fashion...

Name: Jedediah Hicket
Race: human (Iobarian)
Classes/levels: Musket master gunslinger 5/Witch hunter inquisitor 3
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: Artrosa's door (atop Maiden, B)
Catalyst: somewhat ironically - WITCH tree
Gory details: the evil tree was about to pose a riddle to the party. But Jedediah was having none of that verbal offal - he fired salvo of bullets in witch tree, at which point huge plant grabbed and ripped him to shreds. The rest of the party retrieved Jedediah's mangled corpse from dead tree's tendrils and, despite better judgement, decided to return him back to life with resurrection scroll.

Name: Jedediah Hicket
Race: human (Iobarian)
Classes/levels: Musket master gunslinger 5/Witch hunter inquisitor 4
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Location: Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Triaxus configuration, A3)
Catalyst: ritual suicide by curse removal
Gory details: after finally locating & retrieving arcane cookbook from Artrosa, Jedediah was ready to lift the curse placed on himself by Baba Yaga by performing a ritual inside Baba's garden. After lifting the curse, which kept him forever young for the past 200+ years, Jedediah aged more than two centuries in the span of several seconds - at which point his lifeless husk turned to dust, irrevocably and utterly dead. (This death was part of this character's story arc, so not really unexpected - still honorable mention is deserved)

Two more honorable mentions are in order...
Name: Marislova/Maroslan (NPC)
Race: half-elf
Classes/levels: magus 6 / ranger 3
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: temple of Mestama (Mother, D5)
Catalyst: emotional outburst - and necromantic spell
Gory details: Marislova joined party in a rescue mission to free Jadrenka from hag coven's grasp. After witnessing what Caigrel, the Coven Queen, did to her love, Jadrenka, Marislova dashed forward to release her from crucifix. This led to a direct and SOLO confrontation with transformed Caigrel/annis hag - which cut Marislova to shreds and then used her as fuel for death knell.

Name: Erdija (NPC)
Race: centaur (Rashalka)
Classes/levels: ranger 3
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: ruins of Rashalka outpost (NW Hoofwood)
Catalyst: Irriseni strike force
Gory details: this death actually happened off screen. The party found slaughtered centaurs - Erdija included - in the wake of Winter Guard strike force led by Nazhena Vasiliovna, which were gated to Iobaria in order to retrive Dancing Hut. They were almost successful, partly due to the treachery by one of PCs (a player dropped out of game, and since his character had good backstory and proper motivation, I used him for this "twist").

Stay tuned for more grizzly and unecessary character deaths!

Name: Talda'syn

Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Shaman 2
Adventure: The Snows of Summer
Location: The Lodge
Catalyst: Frost skeletons
The Gory Details: Talda'syn had been rendered unconscious by the skeletons while they were fighting Rohkar at the Lodge. The skeletons were taking him to Rokhar and he started taking damage from the skeletons' cold aura. The PCs rendered Rokhar unconscious and they coup-de-graced him hoping the skeletons would release our friend. They did, but as they were still near the aura killed him.

D'oh... yep, it's on this same page. Completely missed that one. As I mentioned, those frost skeletons sure be nasty.

At those levels (1st through 2nd) they should be absolutely lethal. 2 dice damage, no-save aura & death explosion - it's unfathomable how they didn't kill more PCs. I mean, they were not even mentioned on this obit thread up until now. Dervish character has Northern Ancestry campaign trait (we also play with character traits), and still it was to no avail against frost skeletons.

I know it's not the hottest AP (pun intended) out there at the moment, but it certainly is for our group. I pretty much got back into RP just for a chance to GM through this AP.

It's been 2 years and 3 months since we started, and we're currently on the penultimate part of the infamous 5th module, 69 sessions in. We're using hero points, which proved to be good idea since there was quite a few PC deaths, couple of NPC deaths, and several close calls. Without further ado...

Name: Rosom Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: Dervish bard 2
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Location: High Lodge (second floor, H15)
Catalyst: being careless dimwit
Gory details: The party leveled up during notorious battle with Rokhar's bandits. The whole ordeal was a close call and it looked for several rounds like its going to end in TPK. However, they managed to defeat the bandits, destroy created zombies and beat the ever-loving crap out of Rokhar. Completely tapped out, without healing spells and mostly injured they naturally decided to rest before exploring the upper floor... all except Rosom who encountered frost skeletons, got critted into negative hit-points, and finally killed by skeleton's death explosion when the rest of the party showed up to "save" his ass. Two hero points spent and he was back, safely unconscious.

Name: Grid Grimm
Race: dwarf
Class/levels: Guide ranger 4
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Location: Pale Tower (ground floor, Q3)
Catalyst: too many hostiles
Gory details: this one was actually close-call. Grid was on -15 hp and used his single hero point to automatically stabilize since he was about to die on the next turn. And what was the rest of the party doing, you might ask? Why, (just barely) avoiding TPK against Pale Tower guards and water elemental.

Name: Rosom Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: Dervish bard 5/Urban barbarian 1
Adventure: Shackled Hut
Location: Logrivich's clock tower (Logrivich's lair, L18)
Catalyst: sub-optimally placed spiked pit
Gory details: at this point in AP, party optimization started to matter a lot. So naturally certain encounters needed some adjustments - like Logrivich, who became young adult white dragon. Party of four approached invisible and flying (they completely bypassed the rest of clocktower), and without competent shooter opted to attack Acting captain of Winter Guard head-on. Rosom was on the receiving end of dragon's full attack; still alive, he tried to pull away, failed Perform check and got dropped in negative hit-points by Logrivich's AoO. He also dropped right on the edge of conjurer's spiked pit and promptly rolled down 30 ft of spikey bludgeoney death. After the rest of the party dealt with Logrivich, lit up the fireworks, saved Bella and returned to Shrine of Everbloom, they extracted dervish's broken body from bag of holding and got Solveig to revive him via raise dead scroll.

That's it for now, stay tuned for more fatalities...