Age of Worms Obituaries

[Ephave]

Name: Muirios Megdalia
Class: Warpriest 17
Adventure: Kings of the Rift
Location: The Vault!
Catalyst: Big dragons do big damage.

Muirios, heroic warpriest of the drunken god, charged valiantly into battle against Xyzanth and Brazemaal. Unfortunately, Xyzanth crit the bite, greater fort did nothing for the crit, and Muirios failed his save vs the con drain. 12 con drain later (hello high roller club!), Muirios was very much dead. Sometimes you just get unlucky and die.
It's cool though, he came back to life later. Poor guy. First death in 18 levels.

[Jenner2057]

Death #8 (another Hero Point save but still a death)...

Name: Archie
Class: Bard 17
Adventure: Into the Wormcrawl Fissure
Location: Thessalar's Fortress
Catalyst: Wail of the Banshee

Gory Details:

Spoiler:

The group made contact with Thessalar and decided they didn't want to work with a crazed evil lich. They went back and found Zulshyn and found working with the lillend more to their liking. They agreed to assassinate the lich and the next morning headed back. They went up to his fortress and quickly cleared out the thesselhydras before Thessalar arrived. The lich opened up with his wail of the banshee and everyone saved... except poor Archie. The bard was in danger of being killed by the spell but heroically shook it off. That was nearly all Thessalar was able to do as he was soon pinned between a smiting paladin and two-weapon rogue. End of the lich before he could run and heal. Oh well. Dragotha still awaits below!

[Jenner2057]

Deaths #9, #10 and #11 (all Hero Point saved)

Names/Classes: Daxum (Hedge Witch Healer 18), Ruso (Zen Archer 18), Archie (Bard 18)
Adventure: Into the Wormcrawl Fissure
Location: Apostle Caves
Catalyst: Wail of the Banshee (again)
Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Well "wail of the banshee" strikes again. The group had followed the statue with Balakarde's soul into the Apostle Caves looking for the next portion of his soul. They cut through the spring-attacking earthcancer centipedes and mindkiller scorpions all while the Apostle was buffing up. Then N'vesh-N'kar flew out invisible and let loose with a wail. Over half the party was caught by the terrible shriek and would have died if not for heroically throwing off the effects. The Apostle's victory was short lived as he was immediately pelted by arrows from Ruso and took a full attack from a smiting paladin that finished him off before he even got off his necromantic breath weapon.

[Storyteller Shadow]

Wail of the Banshee is absolutely nasty!

Should be interesting to see if Dragotha claims any souls this time around.

[Tin Foil Yamakah]

Isn't there something in there about him spending six rounds to buff, yeah right, like all those minions would last that long.

WotB is nasty(I used the 3.5 version) but sadly never got it to stick. I celebrate vicariously through you

[Jenner2057]

Tin Foil Yamakah wrote:

Isn't there something in there about him spending six rounds to buff, yeah right, like all those minions would last that long.

Absolutely! Though he has "quickened spell", so I think it only took him 3 rounds to buff up. All for two "greater dispel magics" to make all that prep time worthless. Sigh. The action economy struggle for solo bosses is real. LOL.

But! I was at least able to make the minions last for a bit. The earthcancer centipedes were spring attacking from the walls and ground using their tremorsense. It took the PCs a turn or two for everyone to get up in the air and force the centipedes to the surface. So there was that at least.

Tin Foil Yamakah wrote:

WotB is nasty(I used the 3.5 version) but sadly never got it to stick. I celebrate vicariously through you

Thank you! I've still got a book and a half to rack up some more kills (hero point saves or not...)

[Tin Foil Yamakah]

Quote:

The action economy struggle for solo bosses is real. LOL.

No doubt, I had him fully buffed and had him cast mass fly on the centipedes and scorpions. My guys weren't touching the ground at this point. I also included the chimeras in the attack to help Big N out

[Laurellien]

Name: Koopa
Race/Class: Orc Fighter 1st
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Location: The restored mine office
Catalyst: Kullen's murderous rage

Koopa was a hireling/foundling kobold in the care of the party. Having already been killed once by a vampire, he was reincarnated as an orc, but he met his match in the albino half-orc, Kullen.

Character Origin:

The campaign has taken a long time to reach the Whispering Cairn, and two kobolds were "adopted" by the party's half-orc fighter in "The Burning Plague" adventure. We encountered two juvenile kobolds after butchering a raiding party and then adopted them, renaming them Koopa and Troopa, and training them as fighters. In "The Key to the Grave" (a sequel to "The Mad God's Key"), Koopa was killed by the vampiric Lord Kolta. Our distraught half-orc fighter used her share of the profits from selling off the iron balls from the Whispering Cairn to pay for Koopa's reincarnation.

While investigating Balabar Smenk's thugs with a view to learning the location of the Lands' bones, the party got Rastophan and Todrik drunk, bringing them back to the mine office to beat the information they needed out of the two goons. Unfortunately, Merovinn Bask noticed his allies being led away and brought Kullen with him to rescue them. In the ensuing melee, the raging Kullen beheaded poor Koopa with a single blow from his greataxe.

Koopa is survived by his step-brother, Troopa, who is presently lying unconscious in the Caves of Erythnul while his allies are peppered by Grimlock Archers.

[Jenner2057]

Name: Ruso
Race/Class: Human / Monk (Zen Archer) 18
Adventure: Into the Wormcrawl Fissure
Location: Dragotha's Lair
Catalyst: ... Dragotha... duh... :)

Gory Details...

Spoiler:

The group had done well cutting through the Tabernacle of Worms after several bad rolls against Wail of the Banshee in the Wormcrawl Fissure above. They had made good preps against the undead dracolich and launched into the attack. They managed to cut through the minions summoned and the melee rogue and paladin engaged the dracolich on the ziggurat. Their displacement spells were the saving grace, protecting them from about half the dragon's attacks. The witch healer, bard and summoned planatar were able to keep up with the healing. The melee still weren't able to consistently land blows against the undead. The same couldn't be said about Ruso across the cavern. The archer was inflicting devastating damage with his undead bane bow and the whopping +20 to hit from Balakarde's slayer spirit. Dragotha healed himself up with a wish and decided the archer needed to go. He launched himself off the zigguarat, ignoring the AoOs from the rogue and paladin, and landed next to Ruso. A massive greater vital strike power attack from the dragon one-shotted the monk from about 3/4 straight to dead. Fortunately, Ruso was able to use a hero point and heroically dive aside to only be knocked unconscious. A heal from the witch and a blade barrier cover from the planetar allowed Ruso to get up and get back in the fight. This was where the fight took a bad turn for the dracolich. The melee and Ruso were now all close enough to share the slayer spirit as an immediate action. Dragotha realized his mistake too late as Balakarde's spirit jumped from the archer to the smiting paladin and to the two-weapon, flanking rogue. With a shriek at being defeated by the spirit of Balakarde, Dragotha crashed to the ground.
A great fight overall, but Ruso turned out to be the only death (despite some close calls!)

[Tin Foil Yamakah]

Sounds like a good fight and the players had a good time

[Storyteller Shadow]

Jenner2057 wrote:

Name: Ruso

Race/Class: Human / Monk (Zen Archer) 18
Adventure: Into the Wormcrawl Fissure
Location: Dragotha's Lair
Catalyst: ... Dragotha... duh... :)

Gory Details...
** spoiler omitted **

Awesome!

[Jenner2057]

The Hero Points awarded from "Spire of Long Shadow" are running low, so we actually got another real death yesterday.

Death #13
Name: Ruso
Race/Class: Human/Monk (Zen Archer) 19
Adventure: Dawn of a New Age
Location: The Alhaster Spire
Catalyst: Maralee, Advanced Kyuss Knight
Gory Details:

Spoiler:

My group had conquered despair through the city of Alhaster and shut down the Unlife Vortex under the Boneyard. They were now ready to move against the Spire of Alhaster and defeat Kyuss. I didn’t like the idea of Lashonna being on the ground floor of the ziggurat and Maralee being up at the base of the Spire, so I switched the defenders of B2 and B8.
The group fought their way into the base of the ziggurat. They met with Maralee and her Kyuss Knights in the central chamber and recognized the power coming off Dragotha’s favored creation. The paladin kept moving and channeling, keeping Maralee from getting off a deadly hasted full attack. Meanwhile, Ruso near the entrance kept hitting her with arrow fire from his undead bane bow. Maralee finally got sick of it, sent her knights to tie up the paladin and charged down the hall at Ruso. Ruso stood up to the attack, but foolishly stepped back to continue full attacking, greatly underestimating how injured the Kyuss Knight Commander was. She stepped forward and hit Ruso with every swing, two-handed power attacking and the zen archer was smashed across the walls in a horrific mess. This caused Maralee to get a bit too confident as she then charged back up the hall, getting toe to toe with the paladin. She wasn’t prepared for the smiting full-attack she took in return that cleaved through her helmet and finally put Balakarde’s sister to rest.
For his part, Ruso was quickly “battle rez’d” by Dax’s “life giver” hex unfortunately causing…

And Death #14 (this one was Hero Point saved)
Name: Dax
Race/Class: Human/Witch (Hedge Witch Healer) 19
Adventure: Dawn of a New Age
Location: The Alhaster Spire
Catalyst: Kyuss Knights… lots of Kyuss Knights
Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Dax had hurried down the hall to get Ruso back in the fight but by now the defenders of the other three entrances into the Spire had joined the fight with Maralee’s surviving knight guards. More vampire shadowdancers and Kyuss knights spilled into the central chamber causing a wild melee. Kyuss Knights went down the entrance corridor, cutting Dax off from escape. The bard teleported him and Dax into the central chamber, but there was no safe place to take the healer and allow him to continue providing mass cures against the horde of attacking undead. The Knights were able to close in, getting off several vital strikes that took Dax to just passed his CON. The bard had a single hero point left so acted out of turn to get off a cure just as Dax took the last hit. The witch was saved, merely unconscious instead of dead.
The group was able to rally, defeating the waves of undead and securing the first floor of the ziggurat. Unfortunately, the massive running fight had tapped nearly all their resources. They fell back to rest and tackle the upper levels and the Spire next.

[Jenner2057]

And the final death of the campaign...

Death #15
Name: Vilipende
Race/Class: Teifling/Paladin 20
Adventure: Dawn of a New Age
Location: The Alhaster Spire
Catalyst: Broodfiends

Spoiler:

The group had previously fought into the first level of the Spire's ziggurat. As per the adventure, Lashonna opens another 6 broodfiend eggs after the initial assault. So, there were three flying around outside the Spire and I replaced the guards on the first floor with three more broodfiends. Made sense since only two floors up is the broodfiend aerie with another three broodfiends anyway. So, the group lured off the three guards flying around outside and headed back in to clear out the new guardians on the first floor.
Oh boy. These monsters just blow. I'm sorry, but two attacks with +32 to hit and causing d8 INT drain is a bit much. One of these guys had been challenging on a couple encounters, but three? That was nearly a bloodbath. The party managed to bottleneck the fiends in one of the entrance tunnels, but the INT drain still was too much. A couple of bad rolls on d8 left the paladin with negative INT. And, as per special rules for the broodfiend, negative INT results in death from their drain.
Needless to say, after winning this battle, when the party wanted to use the scroll of wish to just seal up the third level aerie to take those three broodfiends out of the fight, I was only too happy.
Other DMs may want to seriously consider toning these guys down a bit in the future. Seriously this was my last death. Kyuss and Lashonna were both pushovers compared to three broodfiends at once.

[Tin Foil Yamakah]

Interesting, both groups I have run through this had no issues with the Broodfiends, I wound up condensing that tower fight to three battles. The Devils/Vampires at the bottom were a nice appetizer for the group.

I wound up having only 9 kyuss knights in total(an homage to LoTR) But they were all significantly stronger than the ones written in the book. Four were at the SoLS, and five were in Alhaster. I did not care for the whole authority check thing, so we had a massive street battle with four knights, some vampire shadowdancers who I used to just to cast bat swarms and the nightstalker?

The second battle was with Lashonna, Hemriss, Blessed Angels and Broodfiends, I am in full merciless mode at this point so when I get a wish and a miracle needing to be cast in a fight that's a success in my book.

The top was Big K, the leader of the Kyuss knights, Mother Superior of the Blessed Angels( I added her on a whim during the PoRH mod and had her stated out for this battle royale) and some Blessed Angels. This was a fun fight especially when the sorcerer discovered that Big K had spell stowaway as an added feature

[Vidigoia]

PC Name: Cassandra Trideka, Female Human "Duskblade" (Duskblade 3, Combat Wizard 1, Warblade 1, Spellsword 1, Abjurant Champion 1)
Adventure: The Champion's Belt
Location of Death: The Free City Arena
Catalyst: The necromantic acid breath weapon of The Apostle of Kyuss, Advanced Ulgurstasta

Long Description:
My players recently defeated Kyuss! Careful attention to Talismen of Undying Fortitude and similar defenses helped keep them alive, or at least quickly revivify-able, but I wanted to honor one death, that of our fearsome spell-sword (spell-guisarme?), Cassie. Taking the breath weapon's full 3d6 Constitution drain, she was left vulnerable and killed by plain bite damage a few moments later. Fortunately, as she wasn't raised as undead, her friends were able to pool the funds they'd earned gambling to resurrect her a few days later, and she lived on to add Wormhunter (and 4 more classes) to her list of prestige classes, and eventually to see Kyuss's downfall