We had our first PC death in tonight's session, and I've read of the demise of many others. I thought we could start a thread to relate the heroic, or not-so-heroic, tales of the adventurers who have met their fate in the Age of Worms Adventure Path.
Deceased: Cys, 5th level Aasimar sorceror
Adventure: The Three Faces of Evil
This story is kinda long, but you need to know a little history to see why things turned out the way they did in the end.
In our last session, the party sorceror nearly died after losing eight points of Constitution from the dire weasel attack, coupled with a 5d6 fireball from the Kenku boss. He felt relieved that he survived such a harrowing encounter, and had a new-found sense of purpose.
Last week was also the last session for our party cleric, so I invited a co-worker to join, encouraging him be a cleric or druid, to take the place of the cleric. He chose to be a half-orc druid, who would be introduced, bound and out of spells, as a potential sacrifice in the Inner Sactum of the Temple of Vecna.
During the commotion of the fight, having a huge centipede in the room and all, the druid wild shaped to a dire weasel, in order so slip out of his bonds. The party sorceror saw the dire weasel, freaked, and cast web over the entire west side of the room, catching the centipede, the druid, the one remaining alcolyte, but also separating the party from The Faceless One, who was still in the Acolyte's Chamber, casting spells from a distance.
The Faceless One doubled back through his laboratory, and cast fireball (I changed his prepared spell as listed) down the hall, catching most of the party. Last session I rolled a 12 on 5d6, which saved the life of the sorceror, but this time I rolled 29 (including four 6's) on 6d6. The sorceror failed his save and dropped to -17 or something.
In hindsight, the web spell hurt the party tactically, but was perfectly in character.
Deceased: Cys, 5th level Aasimar sorceror
Adventure: The Three Faces of Evil
But, thanks to the bard that is internet messageboards, now Cys will live on forever....
;-)
Rhen
I've had an entire party wipe out! hehe Actually after getting half way thru the Whispering Cairn and having half the party say, "wait we'rre in a TOMB?" I got frustrated. I have adapted the camapign to Eberron and so I was using the Eberron swarm rules, chaninging it to a spider swarm, changing the wolves to giant spiders and changing the filchers and slashers to ettercaps, I adapted the necromancer to a DragonBelow worshipper and having an affinity with spiders (obviously). BUt long story short one of my players decided to look up swarms midfight because he didnt like the way i was doing it... so an easy first adventure turned comlicated with thsi and after the party spent half an hour trying to go thru the fresco in the corridor depicting lanterns. Long story short, noone died, they did find the elavator, but the campaign itself died. Its a shame, they were all finally 4th or 5th level, but if we had continued they would have run into an impromptu dragon or something to defintely finish them off! hehe
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Deceased: Rex, aka Requiem, Male Elf Warlock
Adventure: Whispering Cairn.
Rex was quite the daredevil, as well as quite the social outcast. Deciding to dress himself in all black and wear lots of jewelry, he represented the anti-social element of the town. He also whinned a lot.
After dealing with the annoying ghost Alastor, as well as killing the bugbear, Rex was tired and hurt. Upon hearing that a baby bugbear could be sold, he lost what left of his patience, deciding to threaten people until the location of Kullen the Half-Orc could be procured.
Uppon finding said angry, big and white half-orc, Rex decided that intimidation was the correct option.
His fellow party member arrived in time to see his pieces of corpse being thrown from the Feral Dog. He will be missed, and parts of him are missing.
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Deceased: Rex,
I just had this weird dream where I was a whiney gang-banger elf and I was chopped to bits by Kullen in the Feral Dog... Oh wait, only one "x". Phew.
Great idea for a thread, Big Jake. It'd be awesome if folks could follow Modera's format to ease the search for relevant deaths. Something like:
PC Name:
Adventure:
Location of Death:
Catalyst:
Long Description:
I suggest Catalyst to mean "failed Fort Save" or "critical fumble" or "failed Climb roll by 10" or...you get the idea. I'd like to learn from others which parts of the AoW arc are tough because of the design versus the PC dying due to bad die rolls.
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PC: Nox
Class: Wizard/Recaster 6/1
Race: Changeling
This PC died due to a lovely pair of crits and some good dodging on the part of one of the Tieflings in the Ebon Pool Chamber. Said PC decided he would separate himself from the party and look at the pool as he arrived at the pool the others in his party saw shadows moving among the pillars in the room. When combat began the first round included a crit for 30 points of damage from a shock arrow to the throat after Nox cast a fireball. Next round a crit for 20. Next round total damage of 15 points. One dead PC.
On a lighter note the rest of the party decided to use the dead wizards Animate Dead scroll to Animate the dead wizard :)
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Name: Sayla Paylandara 7th level cleric of Zodal
Died: side quest between Blackwall keep and Hall of Harsh Reflections
Where: while investigating "worm zombie" sightings near the Bronzewood cottage the party encountered an 8th level Huecuva cleric of Nerull that was cursed by her god for abandoning his worship for the teachings of the Ebon Triad. The Huecuva had access to Book of Vile Darkness, and used the "flesh ripper" spell to kill Sayla after the cleric tagged the Huecuva with 2 searing light spells. After 5 grand worth of diamonds to the wee jass temple the fair cleric of mercy will return next week.
Well, no PC deaths yet, but we are just about ready to start FO3E...
PC Name: Thamalaka "Stone"
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location of Death: Temple of Hextor
Catalyst: small amounts of damage add up over time
Long Description: The party foolishly choose a plan of attack that involved blitzkrieging the temple. Unfortunately, Hextorites are well-prepared for just such an occassion and took advantage of the party's lack of strategy. Overall damage was great and eventually each member of the party was knocked unconscious until the Free City Adventurers, hot on their trail and looking to score some loot, inadvertantly saved them. Sadly, "Stone" was the only one who did not stabilize.
PC Name: Bane (actually an animal companion to druid Theroval)
Adventure: 3FoE
Location of Death: Battle withthe Faceless One
Catalyst: Two too many lightning bolts
Long Description: Two lightning bolts from the Faceless One is going to ruin your day....no matter who you are!
PC: Alaric, half-elf Brd2
Location: WC, the observatory
Catalyst: Damage, what else?
Specifics: With everyone else busy on the second floor (for some reason, the group's cleric kept neglecting to turn the zombies), the bard was the only one causing Filge the necromancer any trouble -- enough, in fact, to force Filge to retreat and use a 'syringe' of healing.
Determined to win, the bard chased Filge up the stairs, in time to be the target of a pair of Chill Touch spells through a spectral hand. The second such touch, when combined with the attacks of opportunity he'd suffered, brought the bard to negative HP -- which was immediately followed by Filge's skeleton performing a coup de grace.
Character Name: Shay D.
Class: Nightwalker rogue
Location: Blackwall Keep/Twisted Branch Lair/Shukak's throne room.
Specifics: In our adventure, Shukak had the half-dragon template due to party size. Shay was first in the room, and Shukak nailed him with a thrown trident...critical. Other PC's followed Shay, and moved to protect him...in a straight line. This was the perfect set-up for Shukak's acid line breath weapon. Shay, a rogue with evasion, failed his save. Death ensued.
PC Names: Beorm, Halysthel, Throrethan, Violet
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location of Death: Temple of Vecna
Catalyst: Fiendish apes going A*!!#&@
Long Description: Having worn themselves thin battling through the Kenku, being drained excessive amounts of Wisdom by the allip, and having sustained massive damage from well-placed area effects and spells by the acolytes, the PCs charged into the final room where the Faceless One awaited. His acolytes threw up a web to hold the PCs in place, but several broke out before the Faceless One could finish casting and there wasn't room to summon a huge fiendish monstrous centipede. So he chose the next best thing, a fiendish ape. Things went from bad to worse to terrible as the ape lay the smack down and the Faceless One proceeded to summon two more while meanwhile the acolytes laid waste to the party with color sprays, burning hands, and scorching rays. They tried to beat a retreat to the elevator, but got webbed and thumped by the apes. It was a grisly TPK.
Name: Clayton Redstaff
Character: 3rd level Human Paladin of Heironeous
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Date: Waterday, Planting 7, CY 595
Game Session: #5
Location: The Land Farmstead
Event: While investigating the Land homestead the brave Clayton stirred a wounded Owlbear mother from her slumber. The mighty Clayton fought with both skill and honor, awarding his fellow team members the opportunity to fell the horrid beast...the party fighter later "awarded" himself Clayton's magic suit of armor.
We lost 2 members to the wispering cairn:
Gwar(the Half-Orc Druid) died when he decided it would be best to just charge in and attack Filge in his lab.This tactic pressed Filge into a corner and he had to focus his efforts just to get this crazed Half-Orc off him but it was his bravery that gave his companions the chance to battle the zombies without the necromancer casting his spells at the rest of the group.
and
Alexi (the Half-Orc cleric of Kord) fell to the WindWarriors' blades as well as the halfling rogue and the only thing that saved them was the barbarian's tenacity and the fact that the WindWarriors flew in to take him out with their blades. Fortunately for the rogue he had pocketed a couple of healing potions. The Barbarian used one on the rogue but it was to late for the cleric.
After reading Blackwall Keep, I'll have to bring the cleric back to life their is no way for the group to survive long without a descent cleric.
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Hehhe...my group actually had a hell of a time with the Lurking strangler who came up behind the party and took its time hitting them with fear and sleep ("You feel a brief flash of anxiety" (they made their save vs fear)..finally it put the Ninja (by himself in the statue hallway) to sleep and started strangling him...I really played up the gasping wheeze sound effects...the druid's wolf heard and came running and fell asleep in mid leap...the party was near the bedroom and saw the wolf go down but no one wanted to round the corner (they didn't know if the wofl was dead) I mercifuly let the ninja use his Ki ability to revive before rd 3...the monk ran around the other side of the pillar right into the mold (they saw it earlier, didnt know what it really was, but no one approached)...she died and all the half-fear-ray party heard was a thud before her lantern went out and the mold expanded. They kill the strangler. So the wizard gets too close to the mold and down he goes...the druid pulls him back (they had not figured out the mold was the cause)...the druid uses produce flame to 'thaw' the wizard and I tell him the mold comes growth-rushing toward them....finally a ray of frost cleans it out, but the female monk bought it. When the slasher's pit is opened out springs the swarm and slasher who attack the ninja (again in trouble)...the druid rushes in and gets slashed to ribbons dead. Lol the party wizard tried color spray on the swarm, the slasher and the ninja...down goes the ninja alone and gets swarmed...the slasher makes his save. The slasher chases down the wizard and the paladin (who's carrying the ninja)....the halfling rogue (who wants to be a throwing master) dishes out some hurt on the slasher and the paladin finally gets the telling blow, and finally chases the swarm away with torches....they carry the ninja and wizard out....two dead PC's and two asimov clerics (replacement PC's)of the green lady arrive to join the band, claiming they can learn much about death by hanging with the stalwart band...they got THAT right...
well we've had our first casualty to the 3foE;
Nicoli(our Half-Orc barbarian) lost his life one round after slaying Theldrick Cut down from behind by the last of the Teifling guards What will the others do without their most powerful warrior?
Name: Daggit (human monk/rouge 1/1)
Adventure: WC, True Tomb
CoD: Falling
Daggit had survived a bewildering number of near-death experiences so far, and had always been saved by the someone trying his hardest to reach him with a cure potion, usually saving him at around -7 to -9 hp. He wasn't very good in combat yet, and he knew it, but he kept on trying. When the Wind Warriors appeared, he charged them. He took some hits, but that wouldn't have mattered anyway. The hexblade called for him to get out of the way so he could charge, but rather than simply withdrawing, Daggit decided to take up flanking on the other side of the creature. The easiest tumbling route was through the Warrior's space, on the edge of the bridge. As a rogue/monk with high Dex, he didn't see this as a problem... until he rolled a 2. And a 3 on his Ref save. 60 feet and a bone-shattering impact with a stone floor latter, Daggit was no more.
Ironically, the party latter remembered the ring they had found earlier, and had it identified as a ring of feather falling.
PC: Aaelorn, "The Executioner" (half-elf hexblade 4)
Adventure: 3FoE, battle with Grallak Kur
CoD: Insanity
Aaelorn had been hearing voices and taking more and more erratic actions over the last few days- he, and everyone else, was worried that his mind was going. It turned out not to be a problem for long, however. Upon entering the smoke-filled temple of Erythnul and seeing the monstrous priest, Aaelorn leaped down the short cliff and charged towards him- through a forest of longspear-wielding grimlocks. They poked and jabbed at him, but failed to bring him down. He got through their lines and climbed up the room's other small cliff, to face Grallak in combat. One of the guards continued to harry him with a spear from the pit below, and Grallak dropped him unconcious with his mace. A few rounds later, he CDG'ed the hexblade with his spiritual weapon as a sacrifice to his god. Aaelorn's madness was no more. As a sidenote, his half-sister flew into a frenzy at the death of her brother. She picked up his axe (originally Kullen's), and made an amazing swing that nearly cut Grallak in two.
This is always my favourite kind of thread.
Kind of sick, I know, but... almost hoping for a PC kill sometime soon so I can write up an ultra-cool "obituary" story. Just don't let it be my wife's character. That happens, and I won't be able to write anything up because she'll break my fingers after rolling whatever dice happened to do the dirty deed.
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Definitely a thread that induces some schadenfruede yet remains useful for DMs. It definitely seems the majority of the deaths listed here involve overconfidence of the player and/or poor random number generation. I haven't seen anything that whiffs of poor writing which is a credit to the adventure designers. Keep those posts coming folks. It makes great AM reading with a cup of coffee. ::wink::
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Deceased: Zion, 2nd level Human Monk
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Zion was inside the tunnel of the green lantern when the elevator collapsed. Losing his footing, he got up in time to be attacked by the acid beetle swarm and mad slasher. The mad slasher's damage reduced Zion to 2 hit points, when he decided to run away (resulting in an attack of opportunity from the mad slasher). As he lay there bleeding to death, Zion was covered by the acid beetle swarm. The rest of the party was too far away to stabilize the poor monk in time, and he was dead two rounds later.
Strangely enough, the player decided not to try and have himself resurrected, but to roll up another character...
Here lies the body: Melvin (1st level human cleric)
Place of death: Whispering Cairn, false tomb
Cause of death: bad but realistic roll on Fortitude save versus acid beetle swarm.
Session #1
Melvin lead a simple, quiet life (beige volvo) before the church heirarchy sent him to Diamond Lake (and ultimately the Whispering Cairn) to investigate the recent disappearance of the Diamond Lake clergyman. The player created Melvin with a bare-bones read-'em-n-weep completely random rolling system that left the poor character with an interesting collection of statistics. Melvin is (I mean,was) short and plump; easily winded, a mite bit clumsy, and (due to a hysterical random roll on the inborn disadvantage chart during character creation) prone to panic attacks/is completely cowardly in battle. But hey, Melvin wasn't all bad - he was extremely smart and well-read. It was Melvin alone who knew enough to turn the sarcophagus when that Chippendale maxed out ranger who was supposedly the leader of their intrepid band was completely clueless (along with every one else). Melvin was unaccustomed to weaponry and spent much of the early part of the adventure attempting to map out the various chambers, rambling to his disinterested party members about the finer points of the historical significance of the architecture. He was slightly wounded in the wolf encounter but managed to scramble into a cowering position behind his cohorts while they dealt with the unpleasant business of dispatching the beasties. He endured the grumbling of his annoyed companions after the battle with good grace and an unruffled contentment ("I promise to pull my weight when it comes to healing and shall be indispensible when it comes to unraveling this puzzling enigma we currently face. Honestly! I'm best suited to post, VERY post, battle situations.") Unfortunately, Melvin never had the opportunity to make good on his promise. Intrigued by the engineering marvel and pondering what caused the malfunction, he was standing rather close to the collapsed green elevator when the "living geyser" of acid beetles erupted. Everyone else prepared to run for their lives but Melvin got swarmed before he could move. Then a bad roll found Melvin prone, shrieking like a girl (no offense, ladies). Taking damage and in full hysteria, the final straw for poor Melvin was a pitiful roll on his Fortitude save that left him naseated for 1 round (his final conscious one). By the time his fellow bandmembers could get to him, it was too late for poor Mel (ah, nobody really liked him anyway!).
PC Name: Stout (Neutral Evil Dwarf Fighter)
Adventure: Down-time between 3FoE and Blackwall Keep
Location of Death: Not so much a death, rather a desertion
Catalyst: Sensed he had worn out his welcome
Long Description: Well, to say that the compulsive gambling, selfish bigotted dwarf usually rubbed people the wrong way is an understatement (Charisma 6). After driving his companions into debt with high-interest loans from Tidwoad, he paid a visit to a jailed Ragnolin Dourstone. Ragnolin, who has promised revenge on the PCs for their interference with the mine, struck a deal with Stout: Stout will seek out some of Ragnolin's mercenary friends from the Free City to form a group that could kill the PCs (aka Dirty Faced Killers). The last anyone saw of Stout was on a caravan headed to the Free City.
PC Name: Elzar (CN half-elf druid)
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location of Death: Labyrinth of Vecna
Catalyst: Necklace of fireballs on 4th-level rogue
Long Description: So Elzar had always liked his buff spells. He would cast everything, from virtue to bull's strength, to make him and his wolf stronger in combat. After defeating many of the kenku in the Labyrinth, he decided he didn't want his spells to wear off and kept exploring. On his own. Then, after finding little, he decided to rejoin the group, taking a little shortcut through an unexplored area. Which happened to be where Group 3 was awaiting their penetration into the Inner Sanctum. He failed his Spot check, they sneak attacked him (fortunately for him rolling poorly--the boss missed), then they won initiative the next round and did it again, leaving him at 2 hit points. So he decided to retreat when his companions arrived, but not far enough. A fireball spreads nicely in tight quarters and when the boss hurled his 5d6 baby the next round Elzar had to roll a Ref save...and rolled a 3. We are playing with a house rule that allows characters to survive until they reach -hp equal to their Con score. His Con was 12. I rolled a 14 for damage. Nuff said.
Great house rule Qbert--i'm going to present it to the group (you'll be credited----and certainly thanked).......
Its a good house rule but I have a sneaking suspicion that Qbert does not deserve the credit for its conception.
PC Name: 'Web' - Female Woodelf Barabarian
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: The Observatory, top floor
Catalyst: Zombie Paranoia
Long Description: Having stormed the top of the tower the hero's traded quite a long series of blows with the Zombies. The party rogue fled in terror after being hit by a scare spell, and the weakend monk was doing little to bother Filge. Only the cleric and the barbarian seemed to be contributing. The cleric had managed to use his last turn attempt to send 2 of the 3 trogladytes cowering in a corner and his high AC was keeping the others busy. Neither the barbarian nor the zombies seemed to be able to hit each other until the bugbear landed a solid blow. The barbarian raged to make up for the lost HP and again, the battle seemed to stalemate. The party was taking the worst of it but had dropped the skeleton and the remaining trog zombie when the rogue finally made it back (8 rounds later, 4 rounds fleeeing, 4 rounds running back).
The bugbear landed another blow staggering the barbarian, but what really caused the problem is that was the 11th round and the turn attempt on the other two trogs wore off. One 5' and hit the barbarian dropping him to -5. The following round he dropped out of rage (-9) and failed his stabilization check.
In hindsight, the cleric wished he hadn't used 2 of his turn checks down stairs on the Zombies at the dinner table.
Deceased: Rex,I just had this weird dream where I was a whiney gang-banger elf and I was chopped to bits by Kullen in the Feral Dog... Oh wait, only one "x". Phew.
Great idea for a thread, Big Jake. It'd be awesome if folks could follow Modera's format to ease the search for relevant deaths. Something like:
PC Name:
Adventure:
Location of Death:
Catalyst:
Long Description:I suggest Catalyst to mean "failed Fort Save" or "critical fumble" or "failed Climb roll by 10" or...you get the idea. I'd like to learn from others which parts of the AoW arc are tough because of the design versus the PC dying due to bad die rolls.
PC: Redbeard dwarf barb 6
Adventure:HOHRLocation of death:Hall of mirrors/planning room.
Catalyst:not enough health when fighting Telakin.
Long discription: They fought the doppels in the hall of mirrors, unfortunitly, some escaped and got help from the others and the boss came in too. At first it was a doppel slaughter but when two came in the back it became a problem. Seraph, the wizard cast shadow binding and immoblized them and summoned 5 celestial monkeys to distract the boss. the druid, Tofu, was in wild form black bear, then cheeta was fighting the doppels BUT he also healed so now hes called the care bear. The dwarf fought the boss after he flung a few fireballs and changed form and the funny part is that everyone had the illisionist cast disguse other so the feat the doppels had wouldnt work. It went on for a while but in the end the dwarf died (in the form of a fat kobald female) died defending the wiz (in the form of a gargoyal). They won but the dwarf died. THe good thing now is that they resurected him later.
PC: Craegan(lvl 5 archer)
Adventure:between EaBWK and HoHR
Not much to say, died because D and D was to nerdy for him to play:( He quite.
Character Names: Alister, Gregor, Nicodemus, Hogg (that's right, TPK)
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location: The Land Farmstead
Catalyst: Poor strategy + no battle cleric + crummy rolls
Long Description: I am running in the Iron Kingdoms and replaced the owlbear with a wounded spine ripper, starting it with only 15 hp. The ripper surprised the cleric, dropping him with a charge attack in the opening round. The rest of the party let itself get backed into corner, rolling miserable damage for the various crossbow bolts and Rays of Frost that were "pinking" off its pointy hide. When the rogue and the wizard went down, I gave the Gun Mage a chance to run, but he bravely tried to finish the thing off, and got critted for his trouble. I rolled the ripper's final attack round out in the open so everyone could see, and you should have heard the collective groan on the natural 20. Most fun TPK I've ever had.
Blister, halfling paladin of Heironeous.
Died by the hands of a Wind Warrior double critical.
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Deceased: Feya, Whisper Gnome Psionic Warrior 2/Rogue 1
Adventure: 3 Faces of Evil
Catalyst: Too many Grimlocks
Long Description: The group decided that given the options down in the abandoned mine, they would enter the door without a symbol of a very evil deity. Making their way into the grimlock dungeon, they fought many a close and valiant battle, with Feya at the for front fighting for all her might.
It was then that they stumbled into the chamber with two grimlock guards, and their ability to sneak was forgone by a feeling of invincibility (and really, really bad Move silently roles).
The battle was fierce, with the cleric and bard falling. Feya stayed standing during her last few dying moments, fighting off the last grimlock, who critted on her while she was at -8. The others felt bad that the mighty, tiny wielder of Caladbolg had fallen, so they ventured to the Bronzewood lodge, and upon paying most of their cash, reincarnated the little one:
She is now Feya, confused quiet halfling psionic warrior/rogue, wielder of Caladbolg.
Deceased: Swift Water, Wild Elf, Scout 2
Adventure: 3 Faces of Evil
Catalyst: Lack of healing
In the lair of the Kenku our hero led the way scouting ahead. The party lacked a cleric and so was relying on the spirit shaman and the few potions of cure light wounds that had been found. As a result Swift Water was far from feeling his best.
As Swift Water rounded a corner a secret door opened and the Kenku boss got him with a cross bow hit. Fortunately Swift Water spotted the Kenku in time avoiding the sneak attack damage. It was still enough to drop him to the ground though. As his companions raced to the rescue the Kenku boss moved round the corner and threw a fireball bead landing ontop of our unconcious hero and injuring the rest of the party in the process.
Result, one crispy Wild Elf.
PC Name: Amalric (Lvl 5 Human Male Rogue)
Adventure: Blackwall Keep
Location of Death: Lizardfolk Lair
Catalyst: Failed reflex save
Long Description: While barrelling through the Lizardfolk lair, the party entered the lieutenant's cave only to be ambushed. One of the mages panicked and placed a fireball poorly, catching the front 2 party members as well. There was nothing poor about the damage however (5d6; 28 dmg). Having suffered a mighty blow from the lieutenant already, the normally smug thief went up in flames with a failed reflex save (the look on his face was priceless...).
After the smoke cleared the remainder of the party wasn't overly broken up over Amalric's death. In a party consisting of 4 mage types, a warlock, and the late thief, the thief had spent a remarkable amount of time avoiding battles when he was the closest thing they had to a melee combatant. Any desire to have the thief returned to life was quickly extinguished when the party searched his Heward's Handy Haversack & discovered he'd been holding out on them when it came to sharing loot ;)
Alas poor Amalric; all his cowardice & greed earned him was a charming unmarked grave ;)
Chris
PS. The party being so magic oriented was coincidental as they didn't confer before creating their characters. Initially nervous about the butt-kicking they expected (being weak in the martial prowess & healing departments), it's been a pleasant surprise to watch them actually 'plan', 'think', and *gasp* roleplay around the dilemnas this causes. And no more wasted identification costs on potions, with 4 or 5 characters with high knowledge arcanas ;)
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PC Name: Morra (Level 3 Warforged Paladin of Moradin)
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location of Death: Temple of Erynthnul
Catalyst: Pissed off Barbarian
Long Description: Attempting to jump across to the ledge with the archers, Morra missed his jump and fell all the way to the bottom of the pit. The grimlock barbarian, attracted by the kennel master (who had been bull rushed off the cliff), jumped him and put him down as his backup was an elf ninja at 0 hit points since everyone else was still trying to deal with the archers.
PC Name: Sachiko (Level 3 Elf Ninja)
Adventure: Three Faces Of Evil
Location of Death: Temple of Erythnul
Catalyst: Archer Ambush followed by Barbarian
Long Description: Climbing down to the chase the kennel master, who had been bull rushed over the edge of the cliff, Sachiko was put to 0 hit points in the first round. While the archers were distracted by the rest of the party at the edge of the cliff, she continued to climb down. Once she saw Morra dead at the hands of the barbarian, she attracted the barbarian's attention (for what reason is unknown). The barbarian made short work of her.
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PC Name: Grath, Human Cleric of Heironeuos 4
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location of Death: Temple of Vecna, the inner Sanctum
Catalyst: Technically, him healing the bard
Long Description: So great Grath had been with the party for the last few weeks, known as the great man who would cure a friend before himself. Upon seeing this, the Faceless One decided to bombard him with a Magic Missile. Due to the lightning blast last round, the cleric was not prepared, and thus, was peppered with blue death and fell saving his friend...
PC Name: Ulfgar, 5th level Dwarf Fighter
Adventure: 3 faces of Evil
Location of Death: The Temple of Hextor
Catalyst: Bad situation
Long Description: Ulfgar was a valiant mercenary hired by the group. He felt that his armor, his vitality and everything else would save him at all times. Then they slowly walked into the battle temple of Hextor, believing that they could handle anything, even without their old healer. First, the ranger fell. Her name:
PC Name: Tia, 5th level half-elf ranger
Adventure: 3 faces of Evil
Location of Death: battle arena of hextor
Catalyst: Archers
Tia had joined the group for money, and had lived a priveleged life in that she never got hurt. It was them that the young half-elf was attacked from all sides, as panic set within her compatriots and a lack of attacking caused the enemies free reign to bombard the group.
Coming back to our friend Ulfgar, the great dwarf pushed over the statue in fear caused by Kendra, the Cleric. Meanwhile, the bard decided to stay at the doors and fire at Theladrin, chief cleric of Hextor. To say the least:
PC Name: Sam, Catfolk Bard3/Ranger1
Adventure: 3 faces of Evil
Location of Death: Battle Temple of Hextor
Catalyst: Bravado and a monkey.
Long Description: A fiendish ape came into being, and seeing only one person still up in it's general area, it decided that the kitty had to go.
The dwarf, by this point, had escaped the middle, and along with the psionic halfling, began to destroy the archers. The battle was valiant, but eventually the halfling and the dwarf decided to take two potions of gaseous form and escape. The halfling was victorious.
Our new friend Ulfgar, was not.
An elegy for Hedrith Mornalgyl, who died during the Whispering Cairn.
They found the house in disrepair,
it was nowhere near new.
However, said Grit, the party leader,
let us fix a few
of the rooms inside this house
and make it our new base.
So we did build and toil for days,
till we were red in the face.
Hedrith was finishing the last of it,
fixing the roof above his head.
One bad hit with his hammer
and it all fell down and crushed him dead.
(That's the last time that I listen to the ideas from a Wormfood article. ;P)
Nice eulogy, Lord Doombringer! I hope your party includes a bard so that little ditty gets heard far and wide and the amateur carpenter is lamented in all circles!
PC Name: Mort - Male Aasimar Cleric of Pelor
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: The True Tomb
Catalyst: Player being late to game
Long Description: Things were not going well... They had managed to kill the first of the Wind Dukes, but due to splitting attacks, they had taken quite a bit of damage. The ranger had just fallen the warrior was down and stabalized and the cleric rushed forward to hill the Ranger. (The rogue and the Warlock were attacking from a distance.). The cleric heals the Ranger but only gets him up to 1 hp. The Wind Duke was up next, and I asked the ranger if he was going to play dead or try to get up and fight. He answered he wasn't making any attempt to hide that he was concious, so I hit him again, dropping him back to neg 6. The cleric again healed the ranger (up to -1 this time) and stepped back five feat. The wind duke let loose with a full attack hitting both for a total of 16 damage. That couple with a previous hit and the Sonic Boom the first one let loose, he was killed outright.
The late player arrived seconds later, and was able to finish it off.
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TPK
PCs: Angar the Screamer h-male Fighter
Centurius Abraxas h-male Paladin (Heironius)
D'Wylde h-female Druid (Obad Hai)
Harokynne 1/2e-female Ranger
Seutonia Po h-female Mage
Valkynn Radd e-female Thief (NPC)
Adventure: Pre Whipsering Cairn side trek 3
Location: forgotten cairn near the Doomgrinder
Catalyst: Two-fold DM error
I ran a couple of side treks involving a norker way-station near the Doomgrinder (norkers are migratory in our campaign). We'd played for almost 8 hours and were ready to end the session & start Whispering Cairn next week. Well they were so close to second level, I sent them in to finish off the 14 norkers left.
The paladin was killed on a pair of nat-20 arrows. During the retreat I rolled group initiatives for the norkers & they always won easily. In consecutive rounds a PC would fall to a Crit Hit from an arrow. In the 7th round Seutonia the mage was the last PC standing--she bobbed & weaved, using her Color Spray, darts & dagger but she was killed too.
Lessons learned:
1) Dont be lazy: breakdown large groups of attackers into smaller groups for initiative rolls.
2) Stick to your game plan: don't wing with a tired groups of players or (especially) with a tired DM.
oh well.........
Catalyst: Two-fold DM error
I've not had a TPK from this situation, but I've had PCs die the same way. I hate it when PCs die due to my bad judgement, especially when on a side trek or random encounter.
Gideon aka The Angel
7th level aasimar (winged) favored soul (ECL 8)
Death Venue: Final battle with Zyrxog in Hall of Harsh Reflections
Two party members (in a party of 8 PC's) were immediately stunned by an opening mind blast from Zyrxog. A fighter and a paladin (by means of fly spells) had engaged the illithind in melee, but were not faring well due to his displacement. The paladin was slowed by an octipin, and then subsequently mind-blasted. Gideon entered the melee, hoping to assist the fighter by flanking Zyrxog. However, by this time, an octipin had moved to assist Zyrxog, and had enough reach to attack the flying aasimar. Two hits and a rend later, and Gideon was in single digit hit points. Zyrxog then followed up with an empowered lightning bolt, thus ending the favored soul's brief, but glorious career.
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14 norkers was definitely too many as it turned out, but all 5 players are 20 year vets and like to be challenged. Using a group intiative was a critical screw-up as I said, & making the norkers a hunting party all armed with short bows was pretty stupid also. In the two intials forays the PCs killed 31 through teamwork & liberal use of Greek (Alchemist's?) Fire. believe me I feel terrible about it.....
Character Name: Romero
Class: Priest of Wee Jas 2/ Sorcerer 1
Location: 3FoE, Battle Temple of Hextor
Catalyst: AOO+Confirmed Critical
Specifics: In the midst of a mass battle with the forces of Hextor, Romero moved out of a threatened square to heal the unconsious bard, Hailleck. A cultist (Commoner 1) got lucky & scored a natural 20 with his longspear, confirmed with a natural 19. Already quite wounded, Romero suffered enough damage to put him into the negative teens, ending his brief career & sending him into the soft, pale arms of his Dread Mistress.
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Character Name: Gwendalyn
Class: Fighter level 2
Location: Whispering Cairn, lair of the laborers, Room 21 Other Locker room with Benches
Catalyst: Divide and Conquer
Description: Gwendalyn and Delgatto (Human Monk level 2) had defeated the Water Elemental in its lair with ropes tied about their waists leading back to the rest of the group waiting impatiently in the hallway at the top of the stairway. It was a messy affair filled with tangled ropes, fumbles, and vortexes, yet in the end the two were victorious over the elemental. After a quick discussion with the rest of the party, it was agreed that Gwendalyn, since she could hold her breath the longest, should explore the rest of the underwater area solo, with a series of ropes attached to her so the party could pull her out if trouble should arise.
She made three forays into the underwater darkness, searching the rest of the submerged shower room as well as the locker room with benches, finding the dead corpse and the red lantern, returning them to the group above. She told the party she had seen another hallway leading from the other side of the shower room and would check it out as well. She plunged back into the water.
After two minutes, she still had not returned, and the party began to get nervous. Delgatto decided to begin reeling in the lifeline, and suddenly realized there was no resistance on the rope as he did so. In a matter of moments, he was holding the torn end of the line that had been attached about Gwendalyn’s waist. Without a moment’s thought he strapped the rope about his middle and plunged into the water, followed by Flondo, (Halfling Rogue level 2) who was carrying a sunrod in one hand.
As they crossed the shower room, they could see the light from Gwendalyn’s sunrod emanating from the hallway. The water billowing forth held a sickening red tint, obscuring their vision. The duo charged down the hallway and spied Gwendalyn’s still form lying upon the floor, large gouts of blood pouring from the cavity below her chin that minutes before had been her throat.
Not bothering to even look around, Delgatto grabbed Gwen’s body and turned to speed back to the rest of the group, hoping to yet be able to save her. The hideous form of Ulavant rose up from behind an overturned bench and raked Delgatto with his wretched claws. Delgatto, however, was able to continue swimming. Partway back to the rest of the group, he realized that Flondo was not following him. He looked at the limp form of Gwendalyn in his arms and realized she was quite dead. Not wanting to lose another companion, he dropped her corpse and returned to the locker room. In an amazing series of feats, Delgatto was able to grasp the paralyzed form of Flondo from the clutches of Ulavant, and swim back to the rest of the party on the stairway, chased the entire way by the terrifying ghoul, who repeatedly raked his back side. He was able to toss the still frozen halfling to the rest of the party before succumbing to unconsciousness upon the stairway.
The rest of the party (Druid, Cleric, and Wizard) bravely strode forward and dispatched Ulavant.
Poor Gwendalyn. One moment she was striding into a room with sunrod held aloft. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in her side and she could no longer move. Her last terrifying moments were filled with the sight of Ulavant gleefully tearing into her throat with his rotted teeth, his eyes ablaze with the lust of death. At least she felt no pain.
PC Name: Frederich, Gerza of Nerull, 'Thumb' the half-breed, Cletius, Erin Hairfoot, Horus Dragonblood.
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location of Death: The elevator room.
Catalyst: Poor planning.
Long Description: While trying to escape the mines after a failed frontal assault on a fully aware and prepared temple of Hextor, the party lost its only sure way to the surface when the elevator was shattered and were either picked apart by their enemies, or fell to their death while trying to climb the two-hundred feet to the surface.
They were survived by their scout, later known as Garrick Dwarf-Friend.
Great story Royster. It sounds like your players had a lot of fun too. Despite poor Gwen's demise, you are obviously a gifted story-teller and that's one of the key elements, IMO, of being a good DM.