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Here There Be Monsters, the Sabotaged Lift

The party, Maenad Psychic Warrior 6, Human Warlock 6, Gnome Druid 6 (Urol Forol, PC-ized), Human Warblade 6, and Sahuagin Monstrous Humanoid 2 / Barbarian 3, along with Captain Amelia, Tavey, Avner, and Thunderstrike, comes to the rickety-looking lift. But for the Warblade, they don't like the looks of it, and decide to let the Warlock fly everyone up with that Invocation that lets him fly all day. But there's the problem of the horse. Some quick calculations reveal that the Warlock can't carry a heavy warhorse while flying. The Warblade makes repeated attempts to convince everyone that they should just use the lift, but to no avail. The plan agreed upon is to fly some NPCs (including Avner) up first, then tie the horse to the Sahuagin barbarian upon whom Urol has cast bull's strength, who will then climb up the cliffside to the higher level. Recognizing the difficulties of climbing up the cliffside with a panicking heavy warhorse strapped to his back, the Sahuagin initiated this conversation:

Barbarian: It's gonna be too hard to climb up with the horse panicking.
Warlock: Somebody's gotta knock out the horse.
Barbarian: I'll do it.

Then a far-more-dramatic-than-expected grapple battle between the Barbarian and Thunderstrike took place, with multiple escapes and re-grapplings, which resulted in Thunderstrike, having taken substantial subdual damage, fleeing down the pathway away from the party. The Warlock got one shot off with Eldritch Spear, doing enough damage to knock the horse out. Urol rushed to stabilize him and he was strapped to the back of the Sahuagin.

He then began to climb, with Urol waiting below in case the barbarian fell (with a heavy warhorse strapped to his back). He, of course, fell on his last roll, tumbling to the lower level and dealing falling damage to Thunderstrike to take him to -8. Urol was quick on the cure, and the Sahuagin decided to rage to get up the hill, which put him off RNG (i.e., no chance to fall) and he got up.

The Warblade, whose player was sitting with a "Really? Really?" look on her face throughout this whole episode, then uses the lift to get up. And it works, because she's only one medium-sized creature! Another dialogue:

Warblade: Why, again, didn't we just take the lift?
Sahuagin: Because that didn't involve me trying to strangle a horse.

EL 6 encounter passed -- and it leveled everyone to seven!

Turin and others,

Thanks for the kind words. :) I don't think I'm going to steal stat blocks, despite your offer, because I want to run it straight up. I.e., the players against the authors. It's been interesting to see which encounters they crush (Gargoyles) and which they do not (Mummies).

Got another one!

Here There Be Monsters, trap in the sarcophagus room off the Mummy Maze.

The party doesn't have a trapfinder.

Player 2: DRN, Psychic Warrior 6

The player actually happened to step out of the room as the party closely inspected the carvings on the walls while one character opened the sarcophagus. The Psychic Warrior was hit with six of the spears, taking her to -6. Since she had an even-numbered Constitution score, she had to make all six Fortitude saves to live. We allowed her to come in and make the saves herself, and she failed the first one.

(Incidentally, Urol Forol, Player 5's Druid 6, also got hit with six spears, and had to make three of his six Fortitude saves; he made exactly three -- it came down to the last roll -- and survived at low negatives.)

Additional story related to killing PCs: Since Urol is now played by Player 5, I had Olangru snatch Tavey during that fight where an NPC gets snatched. Tavey had very much taken to the Player 3's Warblade character (who's really hitting her stride -- she one-shotted one of Olangru's mates with a critical in that battle), so his capture was taken hard by the group. Player 4, however, noted that:

We have to rescue Tavey. We're going to need him to be another PC soon.

Hello, Paizonians! First time poster here, with quite a few Obituaries to list. I'm DMing the STAP in a very casual game (we've played together on and off for nearly 20 years; we all know what to expect), and I've decided to "referee" the campaign -- all my rolls are out in the open, and I'm not going to cheat for or against the party. That means I do not try to engineer drama; on the other hand, if y'all die, y'all die.

First deaths:

Y'all died!

The Bullywug Gambit, Ripclaw. The entire party was killed by Ripclaw and a few savage pirates from nearby. The party was one encounter away from leveling to third, which would have given the ECL characters another hit die, but they walked into Room K3, and, in an attempt to flank the pirates, one of the PCs walked through Ripclaw's room without attempting to hide. Ripclaw + 3 savage pirates + that savage Ewok = TPK. They were:

Player 1: Don't Remember Name ("DRN"), Aasimar Cleric 1
Player 2: DRN, Halfling Rogue 2
Player 3: Mike Holmes, Human Warblade 2
Player 4: Bait (1)*, Sahuagin 1
Player 5: DRN, Human Telepath 2

Much fun was had upon re-entering the pirates' lair, particularly when they encountered Harliss Javell, who at that time had been fighting off savage pirates for days!

Player 1 re-rolled as a Half-Orc Barbarian 2. Player 2 re-rolled as a Star Elf Bard 2 with a 6 CON (she wanted to roll for stats instead of point buy, and I said why not? She picked her "8" for CON). Player 3 re-rolled as Mike Holmes's son, Mike Holmes, an identical character (it was her first time playing, and we decided that Warblade would be best for her to get used to DnD. Rather than learn an entirely new class, she just wanted to keep playing that.) Players 4 and 5 also re-rolled as clones, primarily because they were really into their characters and wanted to get a few levels to play with them. As I said, casual game, so nobody minds God-awful role-play finagling -- in fact, we sort of enjoy it.

*Note that the character of "Bait" is listed as "Bait (1)." At the time, he was only known as "Bait," but later got the affix "1," once Player 4's Sahuagins kept dying. Cf. World War One as "The Great War."

Next Deaths:

Sea Wyvern's Wake, assaulting The Thunderer.

Player 1: DRN, Half-Orc Barbarian 5, and
Player 2: DRN, Star Elf Bard 5

They were killed in a surprisingly difficult fight with some vine horrors before reaching the Mother-Of-All. The Bard's death was only a matter of time -- she had something like eight hit points -- but the Barbarian caught some bad dice rolls and ended up dying dead when his rage ran out, as Player 1 role-played a little too enthusiastically and never told the other party members how much damage he had actually taken.

Player 1 re-rolled as a Human Warlock, and Player 2 re-rolled as a Maenad Psychic Warrior, to join the party later.

Immediately following the battle with the vine horrors, the Telepath (very useful against plants!), Warblade, and Sahuagin (now Monstrous Humanoid 2 / Swashbuckler 1) pressed on against the Mother-Of-All. I was preparing the customary God-awful retconning to explain where the entirely new party came from (the Jade Ravens was my first thought) when every die roll that went against them in the fight with the vine horrors went for them against the Mother, and they beat her in incredibly efficient fashion. There was one casualty:

Player 4: Bait 2, Sahuagin 2 / Swashbuckler 1

Player 4 re-rolled as -- you guessed it -- Bait 3, a Monstrous Humanoid 2 / Swashbuckler 1, another one of Bait's 255 identical twins.

Next Deaths:

Here There Be Monsters, the T-Rex.

Player 2: DRN, Maenad Psychic Warrior 5
Player 4: Bait 3, Sahuagin 2 / Swashbuckler 2 (we changed his advancement a little to give him some more survivability - hah!)

The T-Rex burst out of the trees, and immediately bit and grappled Player 3's Warblade. Player 5's Telepath used time hop to jump the Warblade into the future, saving her from certain death by digestion. On the following turn the T-Rex one-shotted Bait 3 with a critical hit. (This was the point where we fully embraced Player 4's lazy cloning of his earlier characters, and adopted the numeric naming of each successive "Bait.") Bait 3 had participated in the battle against the Masher and did very well; alas, that was the only combat he'd see the end of. Needless to say, he was replaced by Bait 4.

Player 2 had literally just been finished creating the Psychic Warrior when the T-Rex grabbed her and swallowed her whole. Then the Warlock and the Telepath drove the T-Rex off with the Psychic Warrior inside (without a light weapon or natural attacks). The Psychic Warrior had lasted 12 in-game seconds. Despite her general desire not to clone characters, Player 2 really did want to play a Psychic Warrior, so she cloned DRN. Who, honestly, may not have ever had a name anyway.

Next Deaths:

Here There Be Monsters, the Mummies. (Or: Despair is brutal.)

Player 2: DRN, Psychic Warrior 6
Player 4: Bait 4, Sahuagin 2 / Swashbuckler 3
Player 5: DRN, Human Telepath 5 / Thrallherd 1

Everybody but the Telepath and his thrall, Urol Forol (a re-specced Druid 5) failed their saves against the Mummies' despair ability, primarily because they all knowingly exposed themselves to it in the first round of combat. Luckily for them, coup de graces take a full round, and the Mummies were only able to coup the Psychic Warrior and Bait 4. The Warlock had turned himself invisible before addressing the Mummies, so he was invisible and helpless. The Telepath used his one useful-against-mindless-things power -- some explosive force-push thing -- and saved the day, keeping enough Mummies away from helpless characters long enough so their despair ran out. In the course of the remainder of the battle the Telepath was killed by the Mummies through normal means (slam attacks), but the flying Warlock, the Warblade, and Urol were able to finish them off with some excellent tactics involving the bridges earlier in Dark Mountain Pass.

Player 2 re-rolled as a Psychic Warrior again, having not gotten her fill of the class yet, though she's considering re-rolling as Amella Venkalie if (let's face it: "when") she dies again. Player 4 now has built a chart on which to roll to see what class the next "Bait" will be, and rolled Barbarian. Player 5 has abandoned his Telepath and is now going to play Urol Forol full time, but advanced to level 6 so he can be with the other PCs.

Player 3's Warblade is the only PC remaining that Lavinia Vanderborn has ever met, not counting Urol Forol. In a perfect world, every other PC and NPC would die in the conclusion of Here There Be Monsters, and Mike Holmes, Warblade, would walk out of the jungle into Farshore completely alone, the sole survivor from the Sea Wyvern.

I think I might have even missed one or two. I recall explaining to someone that Lavinia would be able to pay to raise them (raising doesn't cost a level in my campaign), so I think my total about 1/3 of the way through HTBM is 14 or 15. And I'm not even trying!