Phadin's page

Not so much obituaries any more, since one of the paladins got access to Ultimate Mercy, but here we are again.

Name: Gaius, Porom
Race: Human, Elf
Classes/levels: Paladin 7, Warpriest 7
Adventure: Shifting Sands
Location: The Cultist's Ambush
Catalyst: Always target the casters first!
The Gory Details: I really didn't want them to fight ALL the cultists on leaving Tephu, so after the two that died in the race, I had another two attack them at their inn. The actual ambush then came the next day on a ferry they were taking to the cultists island to investigate them (following a lead they had picked up). The cultist leader had been expecting this, having been scrying them, and he was running the barge with his two remaining members. On approaching the island, the sphinx attacked, drawing the front line while the cultists revealed themselves from the back of the ship. The party psionic made the Knowledge checks to recognize the cultist leader as a powerful sorcerer, and tried to warn the party. The party druid managed to blind the cultist leader, but the others were too distracted. The leader had been planning a lightning bolt through a few of the party while avoiding his allies. However, with him being blinded and hearing the sphinx fall, he switched plans and just blanketed the barge in cone of cold. His two allies die since they were already down to single digit hp, but so did one of the paladins after taking the effect AND absorbing the effect hitting the psionic, saving the life of the psionic instead. They tried to fight back, but he got a second one off, killing the warpriest as well before they were able to finish him.

The surviving paladin has Ultimate Mercy however, so she was able to bring the others back to life over the next couple of days. It did delay their trip to the Parched Dunes for a couple of weeks however as they need Restorations for the fallen members.

Well, just found this, guess I should list the ones in the game I'm running so far.

Name: Kheti
Race: Tiefling
Classes/levels: Investigator 3
Adventure: The Half-Dead City
Location: Sanctum of the Erudite Eye
Catalyst: Trying to be a hero
The Gory Details: The group was getting overwhelmed by the Guardian, with only the alchemist (cryptbreaker) able to hurt it reliably. They were wearing it down slowly, and retreated back out the door since it had been wedged open, but the invetigator thought to distract it in the room. The guardian took the opportunity, moving out of view of the door and the alchemist while beating down the investigator. The shaman was too late and too far away to be able to save him before his head got smashed in.

Name: Lehasti
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Alchemist 4
Adventure: Empty Graves
Location: A public tomb outside the necropolis.
Catalyst: Lost in the darkness
The Gory Details: The group were headed past the open tomb on their way towards the brickworks and detected something moving inside the dark tomb. The paladin detected evil, and so they figured some undead to put down, and went in. Aoike responed to the invasion with deeper darkness and proceeded to pick them off one after another in the darkness. Four went down in the fight and the goblin of the group surrendered to try and save their lives and negotiate. Negotiations were successful, he left, but the alchemist bled out before she could be recovered. Nearly a TPK. This event also lead to the shaman retiring from the party and bringing in a new character.

Name: Meqjed
Race: Ifrit
Classes/levels: Magus 5
Adventure: Empty Graves
Location: Streets of the necropolis
Catalyst: Revenge is sweet
The Gory Details: During the first book, the Div from Pentheru's place had escaped. After a failed prior attempt to separate and kill the party in revenge, it teamed up with Velriana. He wanted Meqjed, and she wanted the paladin, Gaius. It distracted most of the party while Meqjed caught clues of her and went off on his own to investigate. The revenant killed him while the group figured out the distraction. she then rushed the paladin, but fell and the Div escaped again. (they'd later finally get their revenge against the Div and Aioke.)

Name: Aurora
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Paladin 6
Adventure: Empty Graves
Location: Sephlacur of the Servant
Catalyst: Unprepared for what they would face
The Gory Details: The group was wholely unprepared to face this thing when they encountered it. They tried to engage with their normal 2 paladins up front and enlarged tactic. Aurora was hit by a successful crit by his Ennervation, and killed outright. Group quickly chose to retreat. In this case, they actually paid for her resurrection, so the death hasn't stuck. (I expect this will happen for most deaths going forward)

Name: Beetle, Gaius
Race: Goblin, Human
Classes/levels: Rogue 7, Paladin 7
Adventure: Shifting Sands
Location: The Spiral Archive
Catalyst: Overconfidence and Self-sacrifice
The Gory Details: A two for one special via petrification. The first round those in range got lucky and resisted. The goblin tried to avert gaze to attack in round two and messed up, getting petrified. An NPC warpriest (Calamity Caller) with the group tried to move in range to use an ability and caught the petrification as well. The Paladin used a spell so he got the effect instead when she failed her save.... good since she turned around and blinded the medusa along with significant damage, but bad as he ended up a statue. Both managed to survive returning to life at least.

I have to say, this book has not pulled any punches. Nearly had a TPK fighting Aoike (only wasn't one because he wasn't actually wanting them dead, but they did have someone bleed out during the fight). Lost another member to the revenant, as the div from book 1 aws still around and teamed up with her. Then the sceudear (who I think is criminally underrated calling him CR 7) killed someone with a critical hit with Enervate. He didn't even need to pull out Harm. I threw them a bone and had Shepses actually join them to return and kill that thing after they paid to raise that dead member. Still took some luck on their side not to end up with a dead character in the rematch, despite full preparations and a level 9 inquisitor NPC.

Also, that last door.... they had no way through it. No one in the party was capable of Knock, and DC 40 was far too high of a target number for the rogue to open even on a nat 20. After the rematch with the outsider, I had Shepses give them a key for the door before leaving the group, instructing them to check on his ancestor's tomb.

They didn't like Shepses after the arguments with Sebti and his apparent disregard of colateral damage with his plan, but they at least respect him now, and he has more respect of them. I think it helped story wise to have that happen, despite the party death required. It gave more dimension to him, as someone who is passionate about his beliefs and his family honor. I was kinda surprised I never saw anything in the book about how Shepses would react if he heard they were exploring his ancestor's resting place, so I kinda had to make it up as I went.