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Name: Dogan (apparently pronounced DOOgan)
Race: Dwarf
Class: Cleric 3

Catalyst: Zaiobe

The group set an ambush for Kikonu, hiding in the stables with Zaiobe waiting for Kikonu's arrival. He arrived, started to talk to her, and the PCs burst through the doors. They argued for a surprise round attack, I denied it because what are they going to do, burst through doors, weapons drawn, and THEN run 15-30 feet to reach Kikonu, without him responding, while he's facing their direction to begin with?

Magus moves in, shocking grasp spellstrike for 15 or something. Kikonu flies away and up 20 ft (AoO hurt him a bit). Zaiobe cast Entropic Shield and flew 40 ft up and 30 ft away from Kikonu.

[30 minutes of archery and minor spells]

Kikonu is dead, Zaiobe has been raining arrows on the hardy PCs, switches to fire arrows, and almost kills Sariah the Ninja. Dogan decides to Channel Energy, heals the party for 12. Zaiobe turns her attention to him.

[3-5 more rounds of piddly archery and crap spells and EVERYONE STAYED OUTSIDE]

Nat 20 (confirmed), 18. 1d8x3 + 2 + 1d8+2 = 40 damage, Dogan is now at -24 hp. Splat.


My group just ran into Zaiobe last night. They found her in her room after more or less mindlessly roaming room to room. [1]

She stood in the corner, bow casually held in one hand, like she didn't want to carry it over her shoulder, and looked startled when they entered. She waved a few times, approached the ninja [2], and extended a handshake. She explained being mute, healed a party member, and asked for help killing Kikonu. They immediately said yes, annoyed that the "masterpiece" they'd interrupted provided enough cover that the ranger couldn't hit him.

[1] There are six players due to my desire to not exclude people, and they've run into a LOT of random encounters (I even handed them a table and made them roll dice to show that this was clearly not the intended path). 1.5 sessions later, and they're all about level 3.

[2] The ninja had just been reprimanded for considering a Ki Charge exploding shuriken in the dire corgy mess hall (where there are 12 eating dinner). She misread the ability as "fireball" and not "ball of fire which will hit, at best, 8 of them for, at best, 1/3 of their life. and then they will be angry." So, she was looking for atonement anyway.

The issue I had was, while wanting to challenge the group, the PCs + Zaiobe vs Kikonu (and then PCs vs Zaiobe) fight was disastrous. 5/6 PCs are melee-focused, so Kikonu being 20 feet in the air and Zaiobe being 40 feet in the air (with entropic shield) made the encounter absurd. Basically, Zaiobe killed Kikonu almost entirely on her own, and then demolished about half of the party. Ranger was down to 5 hp, Ninja was at 13, Cleric was at -24 [3]. When she ran out of arrows, she landed and was destroyed quickly. I wanted to have her fly away instead, but the players needed some satisfaction.

[3] One avid gamer in the group, fairly new to RPGs, complained that I was hiding my dice and he'd rather it not be sugar-coated. This is the same guy who blindly charged into Tsutamu's chamber -- as a gnome cavalier, he got there with movement to spare -- well before the rest of the party could catch up. He was at -4 when Tsutamu died, and that was only because I ignored damage reduction to prevent a dead PC of a guy on his second legitimate RPG session (don't want to scare them off).

So, he requested that for one roll, I do it publicly. Of course, that was the shot where Zaiobe got a nat 20, confirmed, 1d8x3 + 2, rolled an 8, 34 damage later the Cleric was at -24 hp.

Back on-topic, that's how they handled the encounter. Far too trusting, and then they didn't run inside when the flying harpy was raining arrows down at them.