After many narrow escapes and a frustratingly low death rate, my group finally experienced the following fatalities:
PC Name: Dren o' Critwall, Intharia, Malsharon
Adventure: Spire of Long Shadows
Location of Death: just outside the spire
Catalyst: poor judgment and poor saves
Long Description: After heroically and, though it pains me to admit it, brilliantly conquering the dangers of the Spire, the party agreed to escort Sruggut the worm naga into the wide world he'd so hoped to see. The party's halfling barbarian, Aljekar, being a bit of a loose cannon, had gotten the party into plenty of scrapes by doing (in character) stupid things like yelling into darkened rooms, "Hey, anybody in there?" or wandering off alone and then running back toward the party with monsters at his heels. Needless to say, he was in pretty bad shape, hit point-wise. As he, his party, and Sruggut were leaving the area, Aljekar poked Sruggut in the back and belligerently asked, "So, Snake-butt, what's our reward for setting you free?" Sruggut, whose annoyance at Aljekar's attitude had reached a boiling point, simply said, "This," and cast a finger of death spell. Aljekar easily made his save, but his weakened fellow adventurers failed every single save thereafter. They fell to (Dren, 15th level rogue) another finger of death, (Intharia, 15th level fighter) a harm spell, and (Malsharon, 15th level cleric) yet another finger of death. Aljekar, ironically, escaped the battle, returning later to retrieve his friends' body parts and had to foot the bill for 3 true resurrections. As of the beginning of Into the Wormcrawl Fissure, he still hasn't managed to pay off all his debt.
Name: Sniffle
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location: Wind Warrior room
Catalyst: Probably too low a level for the really, really tough encounter
Vetern Group Party were:
Xim, Human Fighter 3/ Rogue 1
Tully, Human Monk 2
Sniffle, Ranger 2
Gimbul, gnome cleric 2
The party returned the bones and entered the final encounter. Xim stepped on the inner ring and the warriors appeared, he quickly stepped back. Tully (who speaks Auran, Terran, and the watery language) had previously talked to the earth elemental to stop a fight decided to raise the masterwork quarterstaff above his head and approached speaking Auran. As soon as he stepped on to the inner platform they charged him. Sniffle leapt across the chasm on to the platform as Xim told everyone to get off it. Tully backed away using double movement but to his horror one charged him via flight, and the other charged Sniffle (who had lept back off the inner circle). Despite Sniffle having a +7 to hit he missed everytime and got dropped (I think I rolled 4 1's in this fight for NPCs and monsters)...
Name: Xim
Catalyst: Possibly a harsh DM and a really, really tough encounter
... The others fled but the WWs barged the door open and attacked. On such a narrow beam they were limited in movement and suffered greatly. Xim held them off while the others were forced to flee. In the end Xim was going to run leaving Gimbul to flee next in initiative, but I said that it would provoke AoO to double move as he would need to pass Gimbul on the three foot beam. He got hit and dropped.
I had them stop at the Face Wall trap. The others were beyond this so safe.
PC Name: Chalren
Adventure: Spire of Long Shadows
Location of Death: The sea of worms
Catalyst: Provoked an AoO when he could have withdrawn.
Long Description: The party's warmage, Ziggy, had gone to the edge of the sea and noticed the two wormcallers on the other side. And as warmages do, he blasted them. One cast airwalk and moved around to a side passage, while the other dived in and awakened the overworm. The party stood about 20 feet away and kept a watch for them until the overworm exploded from beneath the sea. Then Chalren, the cleric, moved back and attempted to cast. Since he didn't withdraw the attack of opportunity got him and two rounds later he was being digested.
PC Name: Keth
Adventure: Spire of Long Shadows
Location of Death: The Sea of Worms
Catalyst: Failed a save against massive damage.
Long Description: See above. After Chalren was swallowed, Keth charged forward with his trusty greatclub, provoking an attack of opportunity. And although the barbarian/druid had nearly 200 hit points, it only took 52 to kill him when he rolled a 1 on his save against massive damage.
PC Name: Cedar Tree (Male 1/2 elf Ranger 7)
Adventure: HoHR
Location: Drow Caves
Catalyst: Confused Duskblade + Attack Closest Creature + Full Attack + Critical Hit
PC Name: Cimber Whetstone (Male Dwarven Duskblade 8)
Adventure: HoHR
Location: Drow Caves
Catalyst: Confused and Poisoned Duskblade + Fully Buffed Drow Priestess + Smite Good w/ a critical hit
Confusion is a heck of an opening spell. The funny thing is that the Duskblade owed the Ranger a life debt after the Ranger saved his life in an earlier adventure. Guess he wanted to get out of it!
PC Name: Aker Cruven (male litorian Ritual Warrior 4/Exotic Weapon Master 2/Litorian Racial Levels 3)
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Location of Death: Part III, Area 28 - Altar Room
Catalyst: Death from coup de grace from a mohrg.
Long Description: The mohrg and a single spawn of Kyuss from Area 27 - Training Hall met up with Bozal while the party fought the other five spawn in Area 27. When the party moved up toward the Altar Room, the spawn and mohrg blocked the door, with Bozal (and anti-life shell) directly behind them. The two heaviest melee hitters, Aker and Grot, fought side-by-side against the undead. A hit from the mohrg's tongue left Aker paralyzed and helpless. Despite the attacks of opportunity, the mohrg used coup de grace the next round and forced a DC 32 Fortitude save to avoid death. He didn't make it.
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PC name: Braze Hardheart (Rogue 7, Fighter 1)
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Location: Zyrxog’s lair
Catalyst: Brains sucked out through small hole in skull
Obit:
What can one say about Braze? Perhaps the best description is one that Braze himself would offer to describe himself, or explain how he hit an enemy, or why he was able to perform some astounding feat, or why he fled the battle in fear again (magical fear, magical fear only!): “Dwarf!” Yes, that Braze was never particularly long-winded.
Braze was not a specialist. He didn’t think of himself as a “wizard” or a “warrior” or silly names like that. Braze was truly (and in his own words) a “Professional Adventurer”. For proof, one need not look further than the contents of his purse…er, haversack. He had one of everything in there. Weapons, chains, locks, gold, treasure, mirrors, food, even a 10 foot pole. Braze, as a professional, knew the importance of having the right tool for the job. Sadly, his equipment couldn’t save him when the time came.
The party fought hard, and waded their way through several caverns full of drow, strange snake-men, and some sort of terrestrial octopus creatures. Coming to a barred double door, they didn’t hesitate, but bashed their way in and all but ran through the ensuing chambers, touching nothing. Thus they came upon the mindflayer. He was ready for them, they were tired after a long day of fighting, but thought that they were equally ready. Before anything else could happen, Braze succumbed to the mindblast. He spent the next 9 rounds in a stupor as his companions fought octopins and were blasted by lightning bolts.
When Braze came to, he found himself surrounded by obscuring mist and the mindflayer right in front of him. His companions were nearby, and he could hear their shouts and groans as they fought the remaining octopin. Braze knew that the situation was dire, but he didn’t hesitate to help his companions. He dodged aside and used his spell-stored healing upon the barbarian (who was slowed, prone, and in a grease puddle). Then Braze bravely turned to face the mindflayer, keeping himself between it and his slowed friend.
Everyone knew that another mindblast was coming, and we watched with bated breath as Braze rolled his will save. The d20 rolled a “2”. Braze passively struggled for his very life as the mindflayer began to wrap it’s tentacles around his head. The barbarian crawled away to receive healing from the cleric somewhere in the mist. When the barbarian returned he found the gruesome sight of the mindflayer’s tentacles all but obscuring Braze’s face, and it’s alien mouth stretched wide and rasping at Braze’s skull. In a desperate attempt the barbarian tried to rip the tentacles away, to no avail. He stood there in horror and watched as the dwarf’s skull cracked and the mindflayer extracted the tasty brains in almost no time. The corpse fell to the floor, his empty skull ringing hollowly as it hit the floor.
The party turned to flee.
Braze will be remembered with honor. Though never a leader, his creative solutions to difficult combats situations would frequently turn the tide of battle. Truly a professional adventurer.
Braze’s player will be returning as a wizard, and has already submitted several spells of his own making.
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PC name: Xinga Butterfly (Rogue 1, Wizard 6)
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Location: Zyrxog’s lair
Catalyst: Brains sucked out through small hole in skull following foolish bravery
Obit:
Xinga had just returned to life after a run-in with Telakin. The lengths that the party went to in that regard were still fresh on her mind. Perhaps, also, her grip on life was not as tenacious as it had once been since her trip beyond the veil.
The remaining party was fleeing the mindflayer after losing Braze to its hungry maw. A chase ensued as the mindflayer greedily sought the tasty intellect it could sense up ahead. Xinga was being carried like a sack of potatoes because she was still stunned. Luckily the barbarian had received some healing so that when he was struck in the back by a scorching ray he didn’t fall. About that time Xinga awoke and realized their desperate plight. She didn’t struggle to get free, but immediately withdrew a scroll and cast a web spell upon the mindflayer, slowing it’s progress immensely.
Xinga was not satisfied with this however. In a moment like one might see in a cheesy movie, Xinga called out to the barbarian, “Put me down! I’ll hold him off for a few seconds. I owe you that much.” It was like one of those horror movies where the little girl goes back for her teddy bear in the middle of the street while the truck being driven by a maniac zooms toward her. There was no one to rescue poor little Xinga though. The barbarian and Chichana took Xinga at her word and fled. Moments later an enormous octopin burst from its nearby tank and crawled/slithered up to the hapless wizard. One swipe of a tentacle claw was all it took for Xinga to collapse into unconsciousness.
We play with the house rule that death happens at your negative Con score, not -10. In an ironic twist of fate, those few extra seconds which had saved Xinga’s life before, kept her alive long enough that the mindflayer could enjoy a sumptuous dessert after a dinner of dwarven brains.
Two deaths in quick succession were too much for our burgeoning wizard. Xinga shall not return. Happily, the player is still with us and is bringing a monk to the group next.
Sorry for the long obits, but my players take them seriously and feel consoled to know that their deeds are appropriately remembered.
Oh yeah, and I'm long-winded by nature.
Sorry for the long obits, but my players take them seriously and feel consoled to know that their deeds are appropriately remembered.
Oh yeah, and I'm long-winded by nature.
Don't apologize, that's good readin'! Maybe it is my RB nature, but I love to read about those character deaths. My players avoided any deaths during the fight with the mind flayer, although it could have gone in a similar fashion for them with a few more failed Will saves!
Don't apologize, that's good readin'! Maybe it is my RB nature, but I love to read about those character deaths. My players avoided any deaths during the fight with the mind flayer, although it could have gone in a similar fashion for them with a few more failed Will saves!
QFT.
The obituaries thread is often some of the best reading around. In fact if one can find it I highly recommend the Maure Castle Obituaries thread. Its like Ambrosia for evil DMs.
PC Name: Grot Bloodtunneler (male shield dwarf Barbarian 1/Warmain 8)
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Location of Death: Part III, Area 29 - Bozal Zahol's Room
Catalyst: Death from dreams of Kyuss trap.
PC Name: Valgen (male afflicted wererat human Fighter 7/Rogue 1/Wererat 1)
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Location of Death: Part III, Area 29 - Bozal Zahol's Room
Catalyst: Death from dreams of Kyuss trap.
Long Description: The party fought and defeated Bozal Zahol after a grueling battle in room 28. They attempted to take the apostolic scrolls but found they could not. Sorely taxed on resources, they should have returned to the coenoby to recover. Instead, they spent some time exploring, including finding the ulgurstata in stasis and Bozal Zahol's room.
Valgen successfully opened the magically-trapped trunk and made his Will save. Suffering only a minor wound, he then cleaned out the trunk. After debating their next move for a short while, Valgen went back to continue messing with the trunk. He soon after triggered it again and failed his save, being sucked into the "netherworld" of the trunk. His stalwart companion, Grot, ran over to see what happened, opened the trunk, and failed his Will save as well.
The group dragged the trunk all the way back to the Titan's House and hid it in the rubble. They then crept back into the coenoby, and rather than try to rescue their friends, the whole group took an 8-hour siesta. They were awakened from their rest by a vision of their friends dying a horrible death in the maw of a massive Kyuss worm.
Now concerned, one of the team slipped off to examine the trunk and found that their friends were no longer held in stasis and a very satiated Kyuss worm was in their place.
PC Name: Ashkor (male lizardfolk Battle Sorcerer 1/Dragon Disciple 4/Fighter 1)
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Location of Death: The Field of Triumph
Catalyst: Killed by a member of Pitch Blade.
Long Description: The dwarves of Pitch Blade (expanded to four in our campaign) seriously put some hurt on the party. So sure were they of their victory, they even allowed one member to get disqualified by slaughtering Ashkor after he had surrendered. Shortly thereafter, the tide of battle turned, and the PCs were victorious over the dwarven gladiators.
PC Name: Eol Seregon (male half-elf Hexblade 10)
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Location of Death: The Field of Triumph
Catalyst: Killed by the Apostle of Kyuss.
Long Description: The party, dubbed the Mercenaries for the Games, found and defeated Bozal Zahol days earlier but never did anything about the growing ulgurstasta. In the final battle with Auric's Warband, the creature burst into the arena and swallowed Eol almost immediately. The next round, it snatched up Auric and soon both were dead and turned into spawn of Kyuss. As Auric's now-spawn body hit the arena floor, thousands of spectators died in a cataclysmic necromantic event.
PC Name: Evo Shandor (male human Fighter 5/Rogue 5)
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Location of Death: The Field of Triumph
Catalyst: Killed by Madtooth the Hungry.
Long Description: The party fell for the "frost salamander" story and prepared to fight such a beast. They were stunned to find the froghemoth challenging them instead. The monstrosity swallowed several party members, including Evo. The rogue was killed in the gullet just moments before the froghemoth was killed by the monk from inside its stomach!
Tomorrow night I start running the Prince of Redhand. After the meatgrinder (SolS) I told my players that nobody from these boards seems to have died in the heavy roleplaying adventure. Popular opinion is that I'll have something to post on Sunday.
PC Name: Marcus (male human cleric 10)
Adventure: A Gathering of Winds
Location of Death: The Keeper's Chamber
Catalyst: Zifforian the Dread Wraith
The last original member of the Diamond's Guard adventuring group, and their honourable leader. When they got into trouble with the undead menace he stood firm and sacrificed himself so his companions could live on. With the group grasping at straw, most of them decided to run when he soon after returned as a wraith himself. But once again the group prevailed. And so it was that the running joke for the rest of the night became that for the first time in our many years gaming that the same character died twice in one combat.
Adventure:
Spire of Long (very long) Shadows
Location:
Tunnels below the Ziggurat
Deceased:
Wargon AxeGripper (Male Dwarven Fighter/Kensai/Bar Room Aficionado)
MT (Mysterious Traveler, Female Bardic Dragon Disciple)
Catalyst:
Cheap Naga-hide Parlor Tricks
Long Story:
The Black Company entered the maze of fetid tunnels bored into the dead rock beneath the dark ziggurat, deep in the hot, humid jungles of a lost land. Wargon AxeGripper bravely led the way, stomping slowly down the moist, rough-hewn tunnel on stout dwarven legs. MT, the Mysterious Traveler followed close behind. Both held their deadly mercenary weapons of trade at the ready. The rest of the party straggled further behind. Lina, wisest among the wise, bemoaned the fact that the narrow tunnel made all of them perfect targets for ill-begotten lightening bolts and other spells. Alas, lightening was the least of their worries, as they would soon learn. Calen the Green, well learned in the ways of Divine Teachings and Arcane Arts clattered along, followed close on his heels by the hired “Hand of God”, Kelfgar, a dwarven cleric. Ara, silent as a mouse, and elusive as a shadow on a moonless night, crept along not far behind; her bow was strung and an arrow lay at nock. Shandor the Magnificent, a young child-prodigy in the Sorcerer’s unfathomable art walked with confidence, and a certain air of arrogance further back. Finally, the vulnerable rear of the party was covered by the graceful strength of Lina Longlegs, a perfect disciple of the “One True Way”.
The party was soon accosted by a single bloated, foul, snakelike being - a single Naga, twisted and malformed by a corrupt evil. Wargon and MT rushed to face it, while the rest of the Black Company readied for combat. As the creature was beaten and fully trounced, it let loose with a last, desperate tactic and laid a magic curse upon Wargon and Shandor, reducing their mental faculties to that of a common lizard. The creature was ultimately defeated, and Kelfgar laid his holy hands upon the two who were cursed, and revived their intellect. And so the Black Company continued down the dark and lonely corridor.
Not far down the hall a group of three Nagas were encountered, and the Black Company laid into them with a vengeance. Wargon’s axe cut deep; MT used her sword to excellent effect, but it was the magical abilities of both Calen and Shandor, coupled with Lina’s supernatural ability to form herself into living lightening and to toss untold beams of searing heat through the air, that sent the group of three antagonizers to their doom. But alas, Kelfgar had been rendered blind! And his standing as a clerical entity had been reduced by some foul magic that emanated from the accursed beasts!
Yet, the Black Company forged deeper through the corridor. Lina, brooding in the back, wondered why she and her friends continued this trek. This excursion had begun to take on the guise of a fools’ folly. What was to be gained? What was to be learned? And as she pondered these things, a second group of three Nagas emerged from the darkness before the Company!
Again, Wargon and MT maneuvered themselves to face the foes, while the others ranged themselves, staggered and behind, in order to sling magical assistance to the two stalwart fighters. Wargon once again felt a wash of magic crawl over his skin, and again his mental faculties were reduced to that of a common house-sparrow! And yet he continued to swing his axe, and it bit deeply into the lead Naga’s corrupted scales and skin. Arrows from Ara’s bow flew with deadly precision, fire sprouted from the labored gesturings of Calen, Lina let fire flow from her hands, and Shandor let loose with a variety of magical conjurings. Although damage was dealt, and two of the foul, bloated worms fell quickly, the final creature flicked out its’ tongue and gently touched Wargon and MT. It was difficult to see clearly, but certainly some foul magic was placed upon them. Both Wargon and MT crumpled like sacks full of starch-tubers … dead … completely and utterly dead. No wounds were made, no hot dwarven blood was spilled, no strong blows fell upon their bodies. The two heroes simply dropped dead in their tracks. Their very souls had been severed from their bodies. The rest of the Black Company stood their ground and dealt a final death knell to the remaining Naga without further difficulty.
Afterward, Lina stood over the lifeless bodies of both Wargon and MT and muttered under her breath, “Never get into a fist-fight with a Naga, especially when death is on the line”! Shandor called the group to his side, and used a finely tuned thread of magical weaving to instantly transport the surviving members of the Black Company, and the now lifeless corpses of their fallen comrades, to a safe haven not far from the desecrated ziggurat. Wargon had left a will (of sorts), and so his body and spiritually imbued war-axe were cremated in a funeral pyre (fit for a dwarven warrior-king!) outside of the ziggurats’ enclosing wall. However, after a long period of rest and recuperation, the soul of MT was coaxed by the two divine warriors (Calen and Kelfgar) to re-inhabit the lifeless husk of her body.
And so, the Black Company was in a single moment both defeated, and victorious. Now, alone among the original members of the Black Company, only Lina could worry that life had never completely ebbed from her physical temple. But for how much longer would that claim hold true? Only endless, and tireless time holds the answer to that question.
Name: Eight
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Just inside the Arena
Catalyst: Hold Person while surrounded by the fiendish ape, a warforged warrior and a warforged scout (rogue 1)
Vetern Group Party were:
Memorial Warforged Fighter 3
Tom Halfling Rogue 3
Eight Fighter 2/Rogue 1
Tully, Human Monk 2/sorcerer 1
Rhianna Cleric 3
Daermon Wizard 3
This module was modified - the Temple of Hextor was replaced with a temple of Lord of the Blade. The Elevator room was split in two, the elevator was in a separate room leading to the temple as normal, but the actual pit was in another room connected to the others via another entrance in the arena.
The Party caused a distraction in the mine area to get access but they were spotted as they headed off. They Charmed one of the guards to temporarily ignore them. They lowered themselves in the elevator room (leaving heavy Memorial at the top). They were ambushed by 6 wawrforged scouts but made short work of them. Memorial came down on his own and they carried on. They faced off against two warforged that were waiting but they had set up the charge by the warforged charger (replaced dire boar) but a well placed blind spell took that out as they slogged. They moved off as the other rooms had been evacuated leaving the idols to the ord of Blades in te corners of the room facing the Mournlands.
I set a total of three people before he doors would close - that number was never reached - boo! The fight did not go well after the Baldrik (Theldrick) used its domain power Warforged to turn Memorial. Essentially the fiendish ape scared them and they fled while Eight provided cover - Baldrick nailed him with Hold Person while in range of the fiendish ape, a warforged commoner, and a warforged scout (I'd leveled the warforged scout that survived the initial fight to make it a first level rogue) - the scout sneak attacked him with a coup de grace and nailed him.
The others eventually regrouped in the elevator and tried to get out only to be hailed with quarrels and oil from the guards above. The distance was only 60 ft in my version (cannot remember why) and the monk got within 10ft of the top before the long spears hit him.
The supports on the elevator had been cut and the elevator dropped.
He eventually tried to grab a spear and use it to climb up the rest of the way. It would have worked but the dwarf failed a strength check and toppled over the edge. Fortunately a featherfall spell had been readied and he floated down.
Now the forces are mustering again for another fight...
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PC: Windra, 11th level female elf sorcerer
Adventure: Spire of Long Shadows
Location of Death: A day out side of Diamond Lake on the trip to Mage Point.
Catalyst: Getting the complete attention of two Barbed Devils with an empowered Cone of Cold. She did not survive their retort.
I swear, this is the 4th time that the character of Windra has died in the campaign. She has become the "Kenny" of the party. OMG! You killed Windra! You b#####s!"
Windra, recently restored to lie after being slain in the lost tomb of the Wind Duke general Iscoil, set out with her companions to visit Mage Point, home of the Archmage Tenser. A day into the trip, the party was confronted by a group of devils that wanted the last segment of the Rod of Seven Parts. The party declined and a battle ensured. Windra was dropped to negative levels when one of the barbed devils mauled her with his claws. Duncan, the party cleric, healed her back up. Wanting vengeance for the mauling, Windra unleashed an empowered Cone of Cold that managed to get past the SR of both of the barbed devils that were, at that time, fighting over who would carry the last segment of the Rod of Seven parts back to their Pit Fiend master. With saving throws and cold resistance, all the Cone of Cold did was tick them off. Both fiends immediately unleashed 4 scorching rays on Windra, all of which hit, one of them critically. Windra was around negative 30 by the time all of the damage had been rolled. Basically all that was left of her was a pile of ashes.
Name: Rhianna
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Chamber of Guardians
Catalyst: Holding the line to against a fiendish ape
Vetern Group Party were: (32-point buy)
Tom Halfling Rogue 4
Tully, Human Monk 2/sorcerer 1
Memorial Warforged Fighter 3
Daermon Wizard 3
Rhianna Cleric 3
Eburn Fighter 3
This module was modified - the Temple of Hextor was replaced with a temple of Lord of the Blade. The Elevator room was split in two, the elevator was in a separate room leading to the temple as normal, but the actual pit was in another room connected to the others via another entrance in the arena.
Long story short... After last time they were holed up in the elevator shaft but then the sneaky ones decided to scout ahead. They scouted and heard movement ahead, but decided to attack. All kicked off and after two waves of warforged commoners and fighters then main guys showed up. The summon ape was planted on the opposite side of a barracade and this caused immense problems. They piled in the attacks to the ape but it dropped the cleric even with her Diehard feat and with that dropped=dead.
BTW Tully and Eburn were later dropped but the remaining clerics took them and hung them in the chamber above the pit and let the blood drain in to the cold liquid so they could be found later - so they could have been deaths too.
My group are finding this arc too hard and they are demoralised by the mortality rate (4 pcs, 2npcs) so the arc may be finishing - shame really.
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Name: Chuckles (Female Dire Boar, later Dire Boar Skeleton)
Adventure: Three faces of Evil (Eberron)
Location of Death: The cliff in the Mockery temple, and the main chamber
Catalyst: Gravity first, then the ebon aspect
The party had done well, and due to the clever use of a magically silenced crossbow bolt, had managed to prevent the alarm being raised in the temple of the Fury. Much to their glory, the Dire Boar was never freed.
Having discerned the presence of a great and angry beast, the party laid out a course of blood and meat chunks leading directly to the temple of the mockery.
The party listened on as the great beast thundered through the prepared defenses until, goaded by spears, the great beast plummeted off the cliff to an untimely demise.
When the party reached the ruin of the beast, the party wizard was struck with inspiration, and drew from his pack the Scroll of Animate Dead that he had taken from among filge's possessions, and so the real chuckles was born.
With the aid of the skeletal beast, the party rampaged through both the templ of the Mockery, and then the layer of the Shadow, until fatefully the Allip reached from the wall and attacked the party's cleric. The cleric responded immediately by laying into the Allip with divine wrath, and filling it with a fear of the Soverign Hosts revenge, unfortunately Chiuckles stood too close by, and went fleeing off as well.
When the party finally found her, she stood by the edge of the summoning pit in the main chamber, the lifeless body of the fleeing faceless one lay at her feet, and the looming shadow of the Ebon Aspect grew from the pit behind her.
She fought bravely and valliantly, for a mindless undead, and gave her unlife as she gave her life, mostly so the wizard wouldn't get smacked.
Name: Vayen (half-elf paladin 8)
Adventure: The Champions Belt
Catalyst: A nice slay living spell coupled with a poor Fortitude save.
Long Description:
The party was skulking through the depths of the arena, looking for Ekaym's sister Lahaka when they stumbled across Bozal Zohal's undead mooks. They dispatched the first group of three Spawn of Kyuss fairly easily. Then, they came upon the mohrg and the other six spawn and the fight got a bit tougher. It ended up that five of the six spawn ran for Zohal after they were freed from the cleric's turn undead (hey, they are mindless, not stupid...). After the mohrg goes down, Zohal and the five spawn return to face the party. Fortunately for the group, they had cast wall of flame previously and it was still active, effectively cutting off contact between the two groups. However, Bozal starts summoning monsters to attack the party and it becomes more advantageous to drop the wall (those darn flames kept turning the party's arrows into so much ash). A few rounds later, Zohal is buffed and wading into combat. The paladin closes with him. Unfortunately for the paladin, Zohal made his cast defensively concentration check and his touch attack and Vayen missed his saving throw.
Zohal was toast about two rounds after that. Vayen was resurrected as an elf.
Current tally of deaths for the group:
Five--Vayen (paladin), I'Kale (ranger), Jameson Deepwell (cleric--3 times)
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Name: Nivek, Warlock 18
Adventure: Kings of the Rift
Location of Death: Phylactery chamber anteroom
Catalyst: Brazzemal finally got the torch lit
As the party tank prepared to deliver the killing blow to Dragotha's phylactery, the wall suddenly melted away and the party was confronted with an ancient red dragon. "Back away from the phylactery," it commanded, and half the group complied. The others tried to flee up the stairs.
The dragon stuck his head around the corner of the stairs and dropped a Wall of Force ahead of the fleeing party, causing a train wreck that trapped all but one of our 'heroes'. Desperately, Nivek whipped out his Crushing Despair and Brazz upchucked a 1 on his saving throw, then proceeded to blow nearly every one of his "50% chance to take action" rolls, leading to his eventual demise. One of the actions he was able to take, however, was a Quickened Breath attack on the still-stacked-up group.
One failed reflex save later, and Nivek fell to earth, a crispy critter. He could take 116 points of damage before dying, and caught 118. He was promptly True Resurrected by the party cleric, of course.
This was the 15th death in the campaign.
Name: Ezekiel, Human Warblade 3
Location: The temple of Hextor under Diamond Lake
Cause of Death: Crit with a greataxe from the guards
Well, my evil, Hextor worshipping PCs delved straight to the heart of darkness, fighting their way through the false Hextor wing of the Black Cathedral. They slew all the cultists, skeletons, the Beast, and most of the guards before pursuing Theldrick into the battle temple. There, Theldrick, his two acolytes (Garras and Kendra), the remaining guards, and the Trog Zombies made their stand. Everything went well until on a lark, I used one of the Tiefling's darkness abilities. It must have been the dice, because from that point on, the PCs missed almost every conceal check while the villians missed none. Ezekiel was at almost full health before a Blind-fight aided head chop from a Greataxe did 41 pts of damage (roll: 12,12,11+9), instantly killing him. The "anti-heroes" prevailed, fighting Theldrick to the last, barely winning. I warned them about this wing, but nothing can prepare a character for 41 pts of damage...(The perils of open dice rolling!)
Name: Elkor, Cleric 7/Radiant Servant of Pelor 2
Location: Altar Room in Shrine of Kyuss (Champion's Belt)
Cause of Death: Prayer Bead toting Bozal Zahol Harm (CL 15!) Save for Half (75pts.) brings him down to 1 hp. Followed by death touch (11d6)= Dead Cleric.
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Hey all, here's my latest group of fatalities. A TPK actually:
Legionary Sergeant Gallus (warrior 2)
Legionary Titus (warrior 2)
Legionary Venentus (warrior 2)
Legionary Castur (warrior 2)
Legionary Santos (warrior 2)
Cause of Death: Spawn of Kyuss in cellar of Blackwall Keep.
This was the side adventure fot EaBWK with modifications to fit my homebrew world. Details in that message thread.
Name: Sir Nick (Warmage 3)
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
After the group defeats Filge (thrown wine bottle crit to the head), Sir Nick decides to take off with the skeleton bones and go bury them. Then after a brief visit from Alastor, he decides to go see what's behind door number 1. Well, turns out that a single warmage low on health and spells, by himself, can't really take on two Wind Warriors.
Name: Wom, Male 1/2ling Sorcerer 9
Location: Arena Battle vs. Pitchblade (Champion's Belt)
Cause of Death: Trying to bull rush Pharbol out of arena (almost worked too!) and ending up next to a raging barbarian.
Name: Solze, 20th-level favored soul
Daven, 20th-level rogue
Rocca, 20th-level minotaur fighter
Adventure: Wormcrawl Fissue
Location of Death: Dragotha’s Chamber
Catalyst: Yes, 20th-level spells can expire
We decided as a group to go straight for the kill shot in the last two adventures, as we were tired of high-level play. Aftering crunching the ulgurstasta sorcerer and meeting Balakarde last week, I had the ghost simply give the party the three fragments, and had Draggie immediately start taunting them, luring them to his lair.
As the party approached down the hall, they started casting their “short-term” buffs. The warmage summoned an elemental monolith, and the throw-down began. The nightcrawler mook I put in the way lasted about 3.5 seconds, managing to launch an ineffectual Cone of Cold before the minotaur chopped him to chum. Dragotha led off with a Horrid Wilting (waiting to get more targets before unleashing his Breath o’ Death). Wilting didn’t work, either.
The death wind went off next turn. Zero effect, other than launching the soul back out into the corridor. (Rogue: “What are you doing here?”) It wasn’t looking good for the BBEG until he took to the air. That changed the complexion of the battle completely. The minotaur, sadly, had no flight capabilities, which turned out to be a fatal flaw, as he was reduced to taunting the dragon and making one ill-fated attempt to have one of the monoliths (three were eventually summoned) lift him up to the ceiling.
Monolith: *Makes strength check to lift minotaur*
Minotaur: *Makes balance check, whacks Dragotha once*
Dragotha: *Full-out melee attack. Cuisinart sounds*
Minotaur player (to the player of the monolith): “Please place the body gently on the floor”.
The action devolved into a four-hour dance of death between (primarily) the flying, flyby-attacking, Heal-wielding favored soul and the Harm-casting dragon. The rogue was hopelessly ineffective (so he got to play the monoliths, who weren’t much better) and reduced to sifting through Dragotha’s hoard while the battle raged. The warmage couldn’t penetrate the SR to save his life and, if I’d been nasty, wouldn’t have survived the battle either. The warlock managed to dispel the acid resistance, which was good, but spent the rest of the time trying to dispel the other buffs that weren’t really helping, anyway (“Congratulations, Dragotha can no longer Detect Thoughts”). At one point he flew up directly next to Draggie to deliver a touch attack(!). If I’d been nasty there, a full retaliation would have added another name to the list above.
Eventually, I discovered the wonders of the Forcecage spell, causing the soul to have to plane shift out and back twice and giving the BBEG time to Destruction and pound the monoliths. By that time the 20-round buff spells wore off and the party was no longer immune to paralysis. One hit on the soul, a failed save, and the rout was on. The minotaur (who had been healed a little by the rogue) tried to run for it, but Dragotha dimension-doored in front of him. He had a Blink ring on and made a desperate charge. I gave him the 50% miss chance (should have been 20%) on the retaliation, and Dragotha missed his confirmation on his first five attacks. Alas, the tail slap got him.
The dragon then returned to his lair and gave the halfling rogue (who was doing backflips in the pile of coins) a lesson on how a +48 Spot works. “Hi there!” *chomp*. The warlock shadow-somethinged out and the warmage did his move-through-walls number, so they survived.
All in all, we got our taste of epic-level combat, and we’re starting a new, low-level campaign next week. Maybe someday we’ll resurrect everybody and take on Kyuss, but it won’t be anytime soon. Dragotha cast 18 spells altogether, including all nine of his Harms, and never got below 184 hp, ending at 309.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Name: Gavriel, 5th level psuedodragon sorcerer and former statue (cohort)
Adventure: Spire of Long Shadows
Location of Death: Room #5
Catalyst: Too many invocations of the worm
The wormcaller opened the door of the dread library beneath the ziggurat, and the Diamond Fists found themselve faced by the three swords of Kyuss and the wormcaller. The swords all went before the cleric (despite individually rolled initatives), and the invocations of the worm rained down. After one average and one disturbingly high damage totals on 14d6 (44 and 63 points), the cohort was dead and the paladin wounded. The cohort also blew his massive damage save, so delay death was pointless. The third sword moved to guard the door. The cleric dusted two of the swords with a high turn attempt (radiant servant, lyre of the restful soul, and a quickened turning), while the wormcaller reliated with a flame strike that took down the paladin (this time, delay death stuck). Another invocation of the worm assured that he would not be getting up soon, but the party's wizard did make sure the worcmaller couldn't dispel it with a few well-placed spells.
Delay death and fate points have avoided a half-dozen deaths so far (2 by fate points, at least 4 by delay death), but the party's luck ran a little thin the last few sessions. Last game, a slay living claimed the paladin's dire lion mount. I figure the first player death to "stick" will happen any session now.
I've given out 4 fate points so far, since I like the mechanic, pretty happy about that decision.
Names: Aureon, Tallindra, Korrash, and Elnir
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: Face Trap
Catalyst: Taking 10 on Search checks
The party decided it would be best to load every single character up into the tunnel leading towards the face. The rogue (Tallindra) began searching for traps, but after the 5th square she listened to the wizard (Elnir) and started taking 10. Her result was just 1 point shy of finding the pressure plate. As the party tumbled down the corridor it looked like a TPK, except for the dwarf with a ring of feather fall. Then the cleric (Aureon) made a reflex save to catch the chain, but sadly, when he started climbing down he failed his climb check and died. The only other survivor turned out to be the fighter, who was at -8 when the dwarf got to him.
I know this is a little off topic, but I keep seeing fate points mentioned. Can someone fill me in on where these are referenced within the AP?
I believe they start showing up at the end of the Spire of Long Shadows.
PC Name: Jack Greyhair, Catfolk Rogue
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: The Ball Pit of Doom
Catalyst: Other PC
Long Description:
First, Jack falls in the pit and gets hurt by the grick. Then he screams, and all the other PCs are afrid to go into said pit. One PC then comes up with ... "The Plan". It involves a very long rope tied to one end
to this PC, in the middle another, and Jack's on the end lowered down to him.The first PC runs off screaming "I'll act as a counter weight!", and proceeds to hop down the shaft back into the lanturn room. Jack gets ripped in half from the still cluching Grick and the now taut rope. the other two get enough subdual damage to knock them unconcious for hours. They wake up on top of each other(and still tied to each other). First words: "I'LL ACT AS A COUNTER WEIGHT?!?!". The best part is when they think he might still be alive up there, pull down the rope, and have the upper torso land on them.
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PC Name: Vandar
Level Class: 13th level fighter/rogue
Adventure: Spire of Long Shadows
Location of Death: The caves of the worm nagas.
Catalyst: Failed a fort save against a slay living spell.
Vander advanced on the worm naga, prepared to make full use of his blind fighting feat to avoid the naga's feeblemind gaze attack. The naga hit Vandar with a slay living spell. Vandar's player rolled a natural 1 on his saving throw. Vandar died.
This is the second time that Vandar has been killed by a slay living spell.
PC: Leon, Human Male Duskblade 6
Where: Halls of harsh reflection
Who: Telakin (as the barbarian)
What happened: Telakin (in raging barbarian form) lays down a mighty critical hit promptly burying his axe in Leon's head for about 30+ points of damage. Leon had 6...thus death. Telakin (at that time) had 2 hp.
PC: Corbin Montresor, LE Elf Warlock 7
Where: Halls of Harsh Reflection
Who: Doppleganger Fighter
What happened: After having been kidnapped and impersonated by the dopplegangers (man, what a fun session that was to play!), Corbin was ready to lay down some vengeance on his captors. After using an eldritch blast to coup-de-grace his paralyzed double, the party rushed into the mirror maze. An already tough fight turned lethal when one of the doppleganger fighters maneuvered away from the party's necromancer, found a path to bring him adjacent to the wounded warlock, and scored a critical hit with his longsword.
Fortunately, a benevolent DM and a dark pact with Mephistopheles has seen Corbin returned to life, at the cost of a portion of his soul's essence stripped away...
This AP, our LE Hextor-worshipping party, and our DM Rakshaka are the coolest ever. :D
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Character: Emani, female human wizard 6
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Cause: Hugs and Kisses from the Spirit Naga in Zyrxog's lair
Emani decided to check out the Naga's pool by wading into it. A couple of rounds of nasty biting and a failed Fort Save lead to her demise.
Her corpse, and the naga's head are now travelling together in the party's bag of holding.
Nature's Wrath
Fog, Fey touched Druid
Crom, Goliath Barbarian
Taka, Troll blooded Ranger
Trenton, Elven wizard (Taken as cohort of Fog after his own team lost in the tournament. The party loved the Varmit Brigade)
Fallen PC: Crom, 10th lvl Goliath barbarian
Adventure: The Champion’s Belt
Location of Death: Underground temple of Kyuss
Catalyst: Rolled a 4 on his save against the Harm spell from Bozal Zohal.
Long Description:
Gilded in his plate mail and wielding his dangerous Goliath Sledgehammer, Crom was a constant one hit kill menace through out the adventure path. The game before, he had killed the mind flayer with one blow. A x4 critical on a full power attack + failed massive damage save = total boss let down, so it was ironic and pleasurable to see him fall victim to the half fiend priest, Bozal Zohal.
Bozal heard the party coming like a freight train, and stepped smartly out of this room and into the room with all the undead, slapping Crom neatly on the back with his Harm spell, who failed his save and dropped dead on the spot because he had been wounded fighting the undead earlier. The remaining two thirds of Nature's Wrath downed the foul priest in two turns, but now they no longer had the resources to challenge the Worm in its lair. Knowing that their team, Nature's Wrath, stood no chance in the tournament the next day without their combat monster, the party grabbed the half fiend's loot and high tailed it out of the underground temple.
They rushed Crom's body out of the arena through the exit into the manor house, and fled to the local temple of Korm to get him raised. They'd left a convincing illusion behind in their rooms to prevent people noticing they were gone, and so they bartered most of the adventure's treasure to get True Resurrection cast on their friend, and we had a fabulous tronoment culminating in the worm's grand entrance. Said worm died when Crom cut his way out of it's gullet.
(In fact, every monster in the Age of Worms path that had the swallow ability died like that. Having a PC burst from your stomach like a bad special effect ruined their day every time.)
It was the only death the party suffered through out the adventure path, though the aspects of the Ebon triad came close to downing Taka both times the party faced them, and Dragotha would have wiped the party if they hadn't riddled his camnber with walls of force. Crom's rez cost the party most of this adventure's treasure to have him raised, but the small party size required the resurrection of their fallen beat stick.
Name: Schizm's Age of Worms Campaign
Adventure: The transition between A Gathering of Winds and The Spire of Long Shadows
Catalysts: Too many kids, not enough gaming.
Our group was originally conceived of as a D&D group for parents with kids - we called ourselves "Dungeons & Droolers." the couple hosting the game has had a rough couple of years, and decided that they no longer wanted to host the game - and, with the arrival of their third child, they decided that they could no longer both game at the same time. Attempts to stabilize the group at a different location failed after two months of desperate attempts to fend of player ennui, flakey players, and the occasional drama-bomb.
RIP, my AoW campaign.
in the mean time, I've put together a new group, and we're starting in on the Savage Tide. I for one welcome our new abyssal overlords....
PC: Corbin Montresor, LE Elf Warlock 7
Where: Halls of Harsh Reflection
Who: Doppleganger Fighter
Feel obliged to add the Human, Hexblade Cohort was also killed by the horrific mirror maze as the whole party got seperated by the traps and picked off by the Doppelgangers. I should post this as the group is getting ready to track Zyrxog, and we all know what his track record is regarding TPKs.. Hopefully my PCs can prevail, but its gonna be rough.
PC: Darius, Human Evoker/ Red Wizard AND Hexblade Cohort
Where: Telakin's Inner Sanctum
Cause of Death: Party seperating while fighting Stone Brain and Giant Octopin
Darius had done quite well through the path so far, eliminating a number of dangerous wizard rivals (Filge, Faceless One), before meeting his end at the claws of the giant octopin. The party encountered the stone brain, and under its dominant mental assault decided to flee from its area of effect while the toughest PC hacked at it with an adamantine blade. Unfortunately, the PCs seperated in two directions, with half backing out of the room while Darius and cohort fled down the stairs... The octopin got surprise on Darius, and beat him on initiative, tearing him to ribbons with three hits. His hexblade attempted to rescue the body and escape but was subjected to its horrible gaze, and was held in place while the Octopin ripped him to shreds. The horror crept up the stairs and engaged them, a round before the destruction of the stone brain (with half the party dominated no less). It was near TPK, and forced them to flee back out of the complex. (Now...what would Xyrxog do? 24 hours is plenty of time for the affluent merchant/collector to purchase/dominate some 'emergency' guards to replace his slain ones...)
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PC: Windra, 12th level female elf sorcerer
Adventure: Spire of Long Shadows
Location of Death: Room with the never ending wormswarms.
Catalyst: Being the only character within reach of the Overworm.
Windra had just destroyed one of the Worm Callers with a disintegration spell. Sadly for her, she was also within reach of the Overworm which came out of the water and killed her with one bite and then swallowed her for good measure.
This is the 3rd death in the Spire of Long Shadows.
Name: Braegan & Barrak
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location of Death: Temple of Bane
Catalyst: Standing toe to toe with a dire boar.
The party made the same mistake every party in this adventure does: they continue to push in even though they know the inhabitants are responding and alerting the rest of the complex. So once Beast was released, Barrack the cleric and Braegan the rogue stood up and tried to fight it while the others dealt with tieflings and cultists. 1d8+12 points of damage doesn't make for long-lived 3rd level characters.
On the second attempt into the temple beast was animated as a skeleton and proved almost as deadly. But even though they knew they made mistakes the first time, the party stepped up and did melee with it again. Nobody died, but Braegan went deep into negatives.
I had four (4) PC fatalities today in the Library of Last Resort. A Wizard 15, a Deathmaster 14, a Fighter/Wiz/Arcane Archer (14th level), & a Half-Minotaur Barbarian/ Frenzied Beserker. All died at the hands of Darl Quethos and his friends. Read all the gory details in the thread, "Killer GM Runs Age of Worms"...
Just wanted to update that Jameson Deepwell, our party's cleric, bought the farm twice in our last two games, bringing his death total to 5. The guy really must want to commune with his god in person...
The penultimate time, he was reincarnated as a kobold. The ultimate time, he was reincarnated as a human.
So, the death toll for the Gorilla Concert (long story involving a bard and playing concerts for the public at hastily announced locations and a scribe with poor spelling and comprehension skills) stands at 7: the ranger, the paladin, and poor Jameson five times.
--Rick
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Names: Rook Moonmeadow (grey elf rog2/wiz1), Nessian (half-elf drd1/rog1/brd1), Kessa (high elf ninja 3)
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Battle Temple of Hextor
Catalyst: Overwhelming enemies, crits by commoners & tieflings, lack of healing
Description: Having a cleric of Hextor in the party, the group demanded audience with Theldrick and Mathias, said cleric of Hextor, tried having Theldrick believe he wanted to join the Order of the Ebon Triad. To prove his loyalty, Theldrick demanded that Mathias slay one of his companions, a paladin of Pelor by the name of Aurora. Pretending to go along, the party got a surprise round before the fight started in the battle temple. Accompanied by Garras, Kendra, and only one tiefling guard, Theldrick was joined by more of his followers in the following rounds: 3 tieflings and 2 troglodyte zombies in round 2, 8 commoners in round 3, 2 tieflings in round 4, 6 skeletons in round 10, and the Beast in round 19. This fight lasted 30+ rounds, but alas only three PC's survived. Highlights included Kendra retreating from the balcony to return 7 rounds later with 6 skeletons, Garras trying to get out of a grease spell for 3 rounds, the kamikaze zombie jumping down from the balcony, Jarryn the warmage/wizard annihilating most commoners and skeletons, the one-on-one fight between Theldrick and Mathias, and the angry glances my players shot me when Kendra released the Beast in the 19th round. This fight took over 5 hours to play out. Although my players had several multi-classed characters, they were also 6 in number, with good stats (5d6), good items (wand of CLW which healed 1d8+5), and a few fate points. Unfortunately, Nessian, who had both wands of healing, went down early, as did Rook. Kessa managed to survive quite a while, but was unable to get her sudden strike on any of her enemies. Of the enemies, only Kendra escaped.