lindemacil's page

um, boss, Fluffy was a Barb6/Frenzy8. Stop killing me.

Eh, I knew it was something like that. I got the addition right. Stop making yourself so easy to kill.

And get offa here. Better not be spoiling yourself skulking about. You don't see me hanging around in Age of Worms, do ya?

PC: Fluffy, phanaton Barbarian 9/Frenzied Berserker 5
Adventure: City of Broken Idols
Location: Room 33
Catalyst: 4 clay golems and their cursed wound ability

Fluffy was the first one into the room and was thus trapped alone when the bronze portcullis came down. He joyfully went to work on the clay golems, but he was no match for them alone. It took the other PCs a round to destroy the portcullis, and by then, the golems had all attacked and hit Fluffy. The paladin moved in so her unicorn could heal Fluffy, but it didn't have the mojo to overcome the cursed wounds. The warlock destroyed one golem, but the other three again attacked Fluffy, taking him deep into negative hit point territory.

Fluffy did get to show off his cleaving skills, finishing off the remaining three golems. He then chose to try to come out of frenzy, succeeded, and dropped dead.

Characters: Lucius, Cleric of Pelor 8/Radiant Servant of Pelor 5 and Naral, Druid 13
Adventure: City of Broken Idols
Location: entrance of the Taboo Temple
Catalyst: symbol of death

Upon discovering the magical rune enscribed on the floor, the spellcasters fell into a heated debate on what it was and what to do about it. After several minutes of this, the rogue tired of the talk, went over to the symbol, and said, "I'm reading it. What does it say anyway?" The rogue survived, the warlock survived - the healers were not so lucky.

lindemacil wrote:

Name: Dog

Race: Orc
Class: Barbarian 6/Fighter 6
Catalyst: four hits from the Bilewretch's breath weapon
Adventure: The Lightless Depths
**snip**

I gotta ask: was Dog a bounty hunter?

El Skootro

No, but the jokes have been plentiful at the table. The player actually has no idea what anyone is referring to, which amuses us all the more.

And another death this week.

Name: Ruffles, animal companion
Race: fleshraker
Catalyst: a certain ginormous croc inhabiting the Taboo Island lake
Adventure: The City of Broken Idols

Poor Ruffles happened to be on the wrong end of the crocodile and was tail-slapped into oblivion. Not only did the hit crit the dinosaur, it also did near-maximum damage. Nobody really misses her. She's the third dinosaur animal companion to be in the group, and we're frankly all a little sick of dinosaur companions right now.

Name: Dog
Race: Orc
Class: Barbarian 6/Fighter 6
Catalyst: four hits from the Bilewretch's breath weapon
Adventure: The Lightless Depths

Dog did an excellent job of making himself the focus of the bilewretch's attacks. He was the first one in the room, he spent most of the battle grappled, and when he was free, he failed all his Reflex saves. One round after he died, the bilewretch was finally killed by the Olman rogue, making it the first time he actually landed a killing blow. Dog was later brought back to Farshore in a portable hole filled with brackish water and reincarnated as a half-elf. Hard to say what humiliated him more - the manner of his death or his new identity. His friend the cleric tried to convince him that he was really just "a pretty human," but it turns out that Dog's too smart for that.

Name: Dog
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Barbarian 7/Fighter 6
Catalyst: Skinwalker Acolyte and his well-placed empowered fireball
Adventure: The City of Broken Idols

Happily playing with Noltus's hound, Dog was poring his heart out to the animal when it became a big hairy baboon-thing and proceeded to attempt to rip his guts out. Dog retaliated quickly enough, but he took enough damage from the julajimus to make him vulnerable to the empowered fireball that the skinwalker acolyte let loose a couple rounds later. Once again failing his Reflex save, he dropped. After the battle (during which the group almost almost lost its cleric - the acolyte really took it to them after they completely underestimated him), Dog was again reincarnated . . . as a half-elf.

Characters: Skullbasher, Lizardfolk Barbarian 8/Frenzied Berserker 4; Willaby Sparkowitz, Gnome Warmage 8/Elemental Savant 4; Din, Gnome (originally Halfling) Cleric 12
Adventure: The Lightless Depths
Location: Tlaloc's Crater
Catalyst: half the party split upon witnessing the wrath of a Neh-Thalggu Scion; said wrath was then focused on those who remained

Willaby opened by casting disintegrate on Tlaloc's Tear, and all were shocked when the brain collector reacted quite negatively. His use of Greater Invisibility prompted the ranger and the druid to retreat at full speed (neither of them had felt too keenly about Golismorga since encountering the devourer). The rogue remained but later withdrew as well when it became clear that the warmage didn't want to leave, even after being on the receiving end of a Bestow Curse and two Cone of Colds.

The three remaining party members put up a valiant struggle, but it was only a matter of time before Skullbasher came out of rage exhausted and unconscious. With the two spellcasters occupied by a confusion spell some 20 feet away (attempting but failing to do each other damage), the Neh-Thalggu decided to collect the brain to replenish its store. Skullbasher was no more.

Perhaps if the other two hadn't been confused, they might have realized how dangerous the situation had become. Din, with a new round of confusion, fled from the brain collector, leaving Willaby all by his lonesome. After another bite, he too was unconscious. His brain was extracted with great relish.

The brain collector, having finally devoured the source of its ire, was content to leave Din alone, until the cleric Sound Lanced him. Once again going invisible, the aberration turned all of its attention on him. Din's insanely high AC turned out to be no match for two True Strike bites, a Bestow Curse delivered through one bite, and a Magic Missile. His brain was also consumed.

Ironically, it was Willaby's player's last session with us before he leaves for Iraq. I was going to have Willaby retire in style (starting up a trade route to Sasserine for Lavinia on one of "his" ships), but instead, he went out as any good warmage should.

PC: Din, Halfling Cleric of Olidammara 10
Adventure: Tides of Dread
Location of Death: Farshore, about 50ft from Vanderboren Manor
Catalyst: finished off by his frenzied party companion

Din had already been injured by the vrocks and hadn't yet had time to heal himself when Vanthus showed up. Spells and Lavinia's longsword attacks (she was the only one to hit him with a melee weapon, and the PCs have a new respect for her now) took him down enough hit points to prompt him to pull out the black pearl. He'd just anointed it with his blood when Skullbasher frenzied on him and put an end to him. The berserker failed to catch the pearl, and it cracked on the ground and started to do what all savage pearls should do when split. The warmage gave Din his bag of holding, which Din used to scoop up the pearl. Skullbasher, still in a frenzy, turned and went after him with his falchion. Boom. Dead cleric.

The party decided to get rid of the pearl by feeding the bag of holding to an earth elemental. The warmage was a bit distraught, considering most of his stuff was still in the bag.

Din was later reincarnated into a gnome, which made the party's gnome warmage quite enthusiastic about inducting him into the ways of gnomehood (althought he'd really been wishing Din would return as a shocker lizard). Din insists he's really a halfling with a big nose.

I'm still working on how Skullbasher's punishment is going to play out.

Character: Phaedra, Phanaton Rogue 10
Adventure: Tides of Dread
Location: Farshore
Catalyst: a trio of nasty vrocks

With the rest of the characters spread out across the harbor - the fighter, cleric, and warmage being out on the water and the ranger being at the other end of the waterfront - Phaedra and a small group of Olmans were left to defend Farshore proper. With the ranger focused on taking care of the flesh golems, Phaedra was unable to stop the vrocks from dancing. She survived the Dance of Ruin (let's hear it for Evasion), but she was the only one left standing. The trio of vrocks descended upon her, and one stunning shriek later, the rogue was no more.

I was beginning to think that I had grown soft, but last night's session renewed my confidence. Two deaths and one near-death that had the player visibly shaken (Zotzilaha totally rocks my socks). The PCs have been getting cocky, after dealing with Olangru and the golem, and they seem to underestimate everything that is thrown at them now. They're convinced this little Fleet invasion is something they can overcome with a single boat and a well-placed warmage, and Lavinia has had to spur them into action to get them to improve Farshore's defenses. Perhaps now they'll start taking things seriously again.

Character: Deegan, exalted Human Monk 6/Drunken Master 3
Adventure: Tides of Dread
Location: the Tarpits
Catalyst: King of the Rexes
When the Olmans warned the PCs about a certain T-Rex prowling the tarpits, Deegan laughed it off. After all, hadn't they taken care of another T-Rex without anyone getting damaged? He raced right up to Temauhti and smacked at him. He missed. And then he started to get a bit concerned when the T-Rex leaned over and picked him up. That concern increased when, after several successful but not so damaging attacks by his companions, the creature swallowed him. A few seconds later and the monk (who had to take a round to make a slashing weapon) was little more than a skeleton. For the past two adventures, Deegan's player has been proclaiming his invincibility. I am so pleased that Temauhti, a creature he continually claimed would be no problem for him, was the one that did him in.

Character: Jenna Goodtree, Halfling Rogue 6/Fighter 3
Adventure: Tides of Dread
Location: entrance to the Temple of the Jaguar
Catalyst: the emerald anaconda
Without the monk to take point, the rogue actually went first to check for traps. Unfortunately, the halfling neglected to inspect a bit higher. When I told them what was up there, she said, "Oh, it's just an anaconda? Psh." It grappled and constricted with great ease, making for a rather surprised and very dead rogue. Her cousin, the cleric, was quite upset, but in the end, it was decided not to raise her from the dead.

Recently had two near-death experiences, both in "Here There Be Monsters:"

The first occurred on the cliff path with the first gargoyle ambush. Urol, the rogue, the warmage, and the cleric (all Small characters) ended up in the water after being Bull Rushed off. The rogue had ranks in Swim thanks to her training with the crew of the Sea Wyvern, and the warmage had an elixir of Swimming, so they managed to save poor, floundering Urol. The monk dove in to save the cleric, bringing him up to the surface one round before his breath gave out and he'd have to start rolling Con checks. The group has been rather hard on clerics this module - they're currently on their fourth one. Considering his lack of a good Con mod, I almost had me another one.

They did much better during the second gargoyle ambush, partially because I was rolling low. The warmage actually grappled Quotactoa for two rounds before getting dumped into the drink. Fortunately, he rolled well and stayed above water. The rogue remained on the cliff after she rolled a nat-20 to counter a Bull Rush attempt. The monk moved to defend the cleric, while the NPCs were herded into a cave with a rather solid ranger to protect them. All in all, it seems they learned from the past, which impressed me, because they can be a rather chaotic bunch.

The second near-death experience was a little more harrowing. During the fight with Olangru's mates, the rogue was teleported away into the pit in the next room, and the rest took some fair amounts of damage before achieving victory. They paused only briefly to heal a bit; the rogue is the cleric's cousin, so he was more focused on finding her. With the warmage and the cleric dangerously low on spells, they stepped right into the encounter with the mob of fiendish baboons. The monk was grappled, the warmage was the only one doing damage to the mob, and the cleric was trapped in the middle trying to keep the monk alive. Within three rounds, all three were in the single digits (though the warmage eventually managed to make it out of the mob to blast it from afar). The ranger came in to heal the monk and then had to carry the unconscious cleric out. The monk would have been baboon bait if the warmage hadn't come first in the initiative.

In the end, neither the cleric nor the warmage had anything above a first-level spell left. The ranger's player was upset because during the melee, the monk had kept yelling at her to heal the cleric while the cleric kept telling her to heal the monk. She's been gaming only about eight months, and the monk is played by her boyfriend, and it shook her a bit to have to decide which one to save. It's the first combat we've had where I was actually glad someone didn't die. She's a good gamer, and I wouldn't want to lose her because she felt responsible for someone's death.

When they hauled the rogue out of the pit and told her what happened, she said, "I'm glad I was in the pit then."

The party is now mid-way through Here There Be Monsters, and there have been some changes since the first adventure. They've been really rough on the clerics; they're now on their fourth.

Arianna - Elven Ranger 7/Beastmaster 1. One of two remaining original PCs. The frontline fighter. The player runs her conservatively, but she still is one of the most effective characters, especially when her Elven Wolfhound Cooshie is taken into consideration. At the moment, however, Cooshie is suffering from Mummy Rot.

Willaby Sparkowitz - Gnome Warmage 6/Elemental Savant 2 (electricity - what a surprise). The other remaining original PC. There's a bit of a rivalry over which one of them will die first. Again, played somewhat conservatively but still packing a powerful punch. He seems to have a little crush on Jenna (the rogue), but being Lawful, he doesn't really trust her.

Deegan - Half-Elf Monk 6/Drunken Master 2. Has the Vow of Poverty feat. Has been knocked into the negatives twice since joining the group, only to be pulled out of danger by the rogue. He made "friends" with Avner to get access to the noble's liquor. His favored weapon is an empty bottle of beer.

Jenna Goodtree - Halfling Rogue 6/Fighter 2 (calls herself the Master Feinter). Jenna is especially effective now that she's picked up the Bow Feint feat, which means she doesn't always have to get in the middle of the things, suiting her just fine. She currently has the bat idol, having snuck it into her haversack without anyone else seeing it.

Din Goodtree - Halfling Cleric of Olidammara 8. Jenna's cousin, though she denies it heartily. He's so much of a scoundrel that he sometimes forgets he's a cleric, but he's always ready to help the party out when it comes to healing. Because of a good Bluff check, Deegan gladly hands over his share of the loot to Din, making for one happy cleric.

PC: Sven-toth, Black Dragon 3
Adventure: The Bullywug Gambit
Location: The Hall of Hanging Silks
Catalyst: Ripclaw
Though none could say the dragon hatchling was the glue that held the party together, Sventoth (more often called Scrappy by his fellow PCs) had his useful moments. He prided himself on being extremely hard to hit. Once arriving at Kraken's Cove, that began to change. First, he was assaulted on the beach by a savage pirate, contracting the same disease that afflicted his attacker. Then, in the Hall of Hanging Silks, Ripclaw saved him a lot of grief and killed him in a single, powerful attack. Alas, he died at the tender age of 16 days.

PC: Mel, Human Cleric of Kord 3
Adventure: The Bullywug Gambit
Location: The Hall of Hanging Silks
Catalyst: Ripclaw, and some concerned adventurers
Unlike his little dragon friend, Mel survived Ripclaw's attacks, barely. He was dropped to -3 by Ripclaw's death throes and stabilized by Willaby, the gnome warmage. At this point, the three remaining PCs began to argue over whether or not to kill Mel. Like Sven-toth, he'd been bitten (several times), and Orin the scout and Ariana the ranger were concerned that he would eventually become Savage. Willaby insisted they shouldn't give up on him. While Ariana and Willaby fought over the remaining heal potion, Orin finished off Mel. In the end, neither Orin nor Ariana were able to convince Willaby that it was the right thing to do.

PC: Orin Tilak, Human Scout 4
Adventure: The Bullywug Gambit
Location: Vanderboren Manor, Master Bedroom
Catalyst: Drevoraz
Always quick on his feet, Orin was the first one to enter the bedroom after Lavinia managed to escape from Drevoraz. His first attacked hit Bua Gorg, distracting the bullywug cleric from his casting. Unfortunately, Drevoraz moved in on him and cut him down with a devastating blow from his scimitar. He is deeply mourned by his fellow adventurers, and Lavinia insisted on paying for his funereal arrangements. He left behind him a journal of love poetry devoted to a maid named Lucerine, who had recently become engaged to one of Orin's rivals.

At the end of TINH, the party had suffered only one loss:

PC: Morgan Stonegrinder, Orc Cleric 1
Adventure: There is No Honor
Location: Hold of the Blue Nixie
Catalyst: a hungry rhagodessa

Surprisingly charismatic and intelligent for an Orc, Morgan considered himself the leader of Lavinia's recent hires, and so prided himself on being the first in battle. With Vark and his thugs, this wasn't a major issue. However, when he jumped into the flaming hold, he realized he'd taken on more than he could handle. The rhagodessa sprang at him, grabbed him with its pedipalps, and proceeded to bite off the cleric's head. Despite their initial inclination to beat feet, his fellow adventurers managed to overcome the beast together.

This is my first time DMing in a couple of years, and it has easily been the best gaming experience I've had. We're fortunate to have a really awesome group of players, and thus far, the campaign has been enjoyed by all, even with the death of one character in the Blue Nixie encounter. With the completion of TINH, the party is composed of the following:

Morgan Stonegrinder, Orc Cleric 1 (deceased). Local hero by day, bouncer by night. He lost his memory a couple years earlier after being struck by lightning, and all he's really sure of is that he was a priest and he might have been married. He quickly took over as party leader when the PCs got together at the Vanderboren manor. Unfortunately, he'll never discover his lost past, as he was killed by the rhagodessa on the Blue Nixie.

Orin Tilak, Human Scout 2. Enthusiastic in everything he does, Orin made a bit of a reputation for himself by saving a little girl lost in the jungle. He's had a bit of a heartbreak recently - the girl he loves has become engaged to someone else, and he's still coming to terms with it. The youngest of the group, he may act like a lovesick Romeo, but he's a fair shot and handy to have in battle.

Sven-toth, hatchling Black Dragon 2. Picked up by Morgan after he was abandoned in a tavern the same day he was hatched, Sven-toth was then passed to Orin after Morgan's death. Barely skirting the neutral alignment, Sven-toth loves nothing better than enjoying his "horde" (all his gp collected in a knapsack carried by Orin), but he's been quite useful in battle. He also provided a handy distraction while dealing with Nemien, though he later mauled the man nearly to death (just because Nemien said he was stinky . . .). He's become something of a party mascot, though he's not very pleased at that. Orin calls him Scrappy.

Ariana, Elven Ranger 2. A bounty hunter well known for her tracking skills, she's the party's cool-headed frontline fighter. Not many underestimate this elf, especially after seeing what she can do with that warhammer she carries around. Despite being right in the thick of things, she has yet to fall to negative points in battle, and she's usually untouched by whomever she decides to pick a fight with.

Willaby Sparkowitz, Gnome Warmage 2. An alchemist by trade, Willaby's real passion is denoted by his surname. He has a penchant for all things electrical and a soft spot for exotic animals. As the only lawful character in the bunch, he has his hands full mediating between his fellow (mostly) chaotic adventurers and the assortment of people they've had to interact with thus far.

Mel, Human Cleric of Kord 2. Replaced Morgan early in the adventure. Not overly bright but more than capable in the capacity of healer. He seems to have joined the party mostly to keep them all out of trouble (and that goes double for the dragon).