How about telling your Memorable events in the AoW campaign?
When my GF tumbled over bouth the theiflings in the room next to the skeletons in the Hextor temple to backstab one of them and got critted with a greataxe for allmost all her HP (had 3 left or something) but proseeded to kick butt when she landed
that was cool
I single handedly took the last two gladiator fights by polymorphing into an elephant...
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In Telakin's antechamber, the halfling in the party I judge for set off all four traps by himself in clockwise order - it was awesome. That was a gritty fight, as all of the spell casters (three of sic characters) were out of spell points. It became a slug fest, which was fun.
Don Kenneth Brown
West Jordan, Utah
While fighting the cultists of Hextor in "Three Faces of Evil," Kendra casts silence on a rock and hurls it into the party's midst. The halfling rogue promptly picks up the rock and swallows it. It negated the silence effect, but it was terrible for his digestive tract.
Later on in "A Gathering of Winds," the conjurer/fleshwarper took out Ilthane with one hit. Critical hit with an orb of force, followed by a natural 1 on the dragon's Fortitude save vs. massive damage. They still won't let me live that one down. :)
Killing the Ebon Aspect by getting it onto the platform of the elevator while all the party members hung onto a chain, snapping the chain and flying upwards while the Aspect plunged to its doom was pretty memorable. As was the analogy one of my players made while puzzling out the Faceless One's missive. "That thing we fought down there, that was Charmander. If it gets ahold of those green worms, it'll get all Charizard on our asses."
I hope that Pokemon analogies were the last thing on Mike Mearls' mind when he wrote that module.
My Iron Heroes berserker, Broak Fifteen-Gods, incurred the wrath of the Ebon Aspect by...peeing in his dark pool. I figured it was the most effective method of desecration.
The Lizardfolk Chieftain managed to get us all separated in his lair, and then he went out, stopped my berserker's charge, and speared me on his trident, then lifted me up and started bashing me all around the room. Would have been game over for Broak the Spitted if I hadn't chopped the trident in half. Then I fought the rest of the battle with a trident head poking out me. Fun stuff.
In Diamond Lake, our party got into a fight with the scarred half-orc's (Kullen) band of thugs in the Feral Dog. Half-way through the brawl my berserker decided to end the stalemate by smashing two of the tavern's supporting columns. The whole place collapsed on everyone's heads. The survivors were named the winners by default...right before they got thrown in jail.
When my group of players split up in the Grimlock caves (area 19 and 20). The bull strenghted, raging Barbarian took out all the six grimlocks in 2 rounds, while the bard, ninja, cleric handle the chieftain alone in 3 rounds, the tanglefoot bags, tasha's laughter, inhibit combination did him in...he never hit anyone.
They still rag about it...and I'm waiting for the Faceless One confrontation!
As the Party stubled their way though Filge's observitory, they really made no efforts to hide their presence. Battle crys, loud arguements and blowing up locks with their wand of shatter seemed to be their "stealth plan". They figured that Filge himself was probably up in the topmost level, getting a nasty surprise ready for them, and they were right.
So Filge was all prepared with his injections and spells and minons, when up the stairs charges a group of do gooders...all dressed like him?
My players thought it was weird that Filge had the same outfit over and over again in his closet, so they all put on his clothes as a distraction tactic. It just seemed so funny, that it had to be rewarded. I gave them the element of surprise, and dropped Filge to the bottom of intitive order as he stared in shock and fury at the closet raiders.
So many great moments. When trying to intimidate Kullen and his gang in the Feral Dog, Slim, the party's ranger, rolled a natural 1 on his Intimidate check and specified that he was using Skutch's severed arm to intimidate them. So basically, he got two words out, dropped the arm on the table, which then fell on the floor. The only reaction was Merovinn Bask sadly stating,"He was my best friend." Bar fight erupts and I'm certain that our three person party is doomed; I've already got the back up plan in place where the thugs will just take their hard-earned treasure and leave them tied up and naked in town square. Man, was I wrong. The gnome wizard gets a confirmed double 20 crit on Bask with a flask of acid, so his face just about melts off. The ranger manages to shoot out Kullen's eye with his own crit, knocking Kullen out of the fight. That was probably enough for the other members of the gang to be completely cowed, so they retreated.
The next night, after the party got their information from the captured and humiliated Kullen, the gang returns for revenge, burning down the mine office with the party inside. Another fight erupts outside of the burning shack, Kullen gets on top of the wizard and manages to start carving the groups insignia on his forehead. The wizard has true strike memorized, which doesn't require a somatic component so I rule he can cast it. Basically he bluffs with,"Oh dear, I can't move my arms, BLAGH!" and gouges out Kullen's other eye with his bare hand. Naturally, the other thugs are really scared of him now and he gets off another flask of acid at Merovinn Bask as he's running away.
There was some alignment adjustment for him after that.
Brother Shamas, our cleric of St. Cuthbert, managed a few great scenes in Three Faces of Evil. He managed to clamor up to the Grimlock barracks and grab all of their weapons from the rack and then threw them down the ravine, so they slaughtered the unarmed Grimlocks. Also, in Grallak's cave, body slammed two Grimlock guards by jumping in full plate on top of them from the cliff and spearing one with the horns on his helmet.
I love my players and the Adventure Path. Probably the most fun I've had playing D&D has been with these adventures.
Kullen getting taken out three times in one day (see other post).
Our halfling rogue jumping off the grimlock ledge down to the one with the archers on it (not Spotting they were there ahead of time), then bullrushing one of them off(!)
Paladin taking out Theldrick in two rounds, both criticals.
Grallak Kur leaping off his perch and using his last spell, Death Knell, on the aforementioned paladin (see Obituaries)
The whole party running through the FO's maze like little girls, hiding from the Aspect (with good reason).
I killed a man with a trident.
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clue me in, what movie?
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy with Will Ferrell. But Steve Carrell's character says it after the funny-as-heck "gang fight."
We better be carfeul, we don't want to high jack this thread. Between this quote anfd the Pokemon quotes above, we are dangerously close to it...
Don Kenneth Brown
West Jordan, Utah
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After the confrontation with Kullen goes south quickly, mostly due to one barbarian pc's hot-headedness, Kullen's band is reduced to bloody tatters. With the exception of the enemy mage, who surrenders, talks, and is then put to the sword by said barbarian. All this is witnessed and allowed to happen by the LG cleric of Heironeous.
Skip ahead to 3FOE. Throughout the adventure, I begin applying subdual damage to the cleric each time he casts a second level spell or higher - a headache due to his deity's disapproval and lack of atonement(and further misdeeds). He goes to Valkas Dun after 3FOE and asks him to intercede on his behalf with Heironeous. After meditating, Valkas Dun tells him that he received a vision of a dastardly act and that Heironeous demands as penance that the perpetrator be delivered to stand trial for it.
Did I mention that the barbarian player is the cleric player's wife? The look from the cleric player was hysterical.
In the end he decided it was better to have peace in the home, renounced heironeous, shifted his alignment and ended up picking a home-brewed deity as a better fit.
So many to pick from...
When the wizard says he'll subtley pump Kullen and Co. for info, and proceeds to toss the arm on the table and mock them. The battle ends with Kullen and his group stripped naked and tied to a post in the town center for kids to throw ripe tomatoes at them.
The look on the group's face as I described the worm burrowing its way to the brain during in the basement at Blackwall Keep, followed by the cleric promptly digging the thing out of his own neck with his dagger, reducing him to 2 hp.
The moment when the group realized that the elven Ranger had been a doppleganger for two sessions, explaining the characters recent string of "careless mistakes." The real ranger was nearly killed just in case, and the others never fully trusted him until he died and his body remained the same.
The wizard getting killed thanks to a bad save in the arena, and the comedy of errors to smuggle him out to a temple to get raised. Filge (who turned over a new leaf when the party spared him) snuck into their room and explained he didn't need the whole body and told the fighter to hack off a leg.
The player who gave me a one-finger salute and got up and left the table after I described the Apostle spit out a Kyuss-ified Auric and the subsequent death that followed.
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When my players stole Ilthanes egg at Blackwall keep with dreams of dragon ownership in their minds. I let a whole game session go before I had the egg hatch and spill worms all over the terrified PC's in their Inn room. They panicked and ran or jumped out windows. On Pc was knocked unconcious from the fall. The best part was the munchkin in our group Tony, who went out and bought a copy of Draconomicon right after they took the egg. It was great to see the looks on their faces. Especially when Ilthane reappeared and wiped out Diamond lake.
Unfortunately, the players in my game finished off the Apostle before the tournament, so I was hoping that the last fight wasn't a complete, boring romp all over Auric's group.
I wasn't disappointed.
In the last fight, Auric met the PC meleers by himself mid-field after a spell from the wizard slowed his flesh golems. Khellek met said wizard in the air, and managed to get off a feeblemind spell; thanks to an action point, the wizard held off the spell. On his next turn, he retaliated by turning Khellek... into a peacock.
Yes... a peacock.
By the time the flesh golems made it to melee range, Auric was unconcious and Khellek was squawking all over the arena. Then the wizard pulled out another trick; at his direction, the druid cast gust of wind, which he followed with control wind (think that's the name), allowing him to make a tornado right on top of the golems. Auric and Khellek had already been pulled to safety by the players, and the three golems were chucked over the arena's wall.
Did I mention the campaign's in Eberron? And that the arena was roughly three miles above the ground?
Needless to say, they were pulp, and the players were victorious. The wizard plans on using the same trick sometime after another caster joins the paty, so he can add a delayed blast fireball to the mix for a firey tornado :O
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Whispering Cairn: The Fight against the Vampire
My group’s party of adventurers was kicking butt and it was clear to me that the fight against Filge was going very well for the party. Too well really – there seemed little chance of a climactic fight in the observatory.
Now on the cusp of third level, they took out the Tomb Mote, handily dispatched the skeleton crossbowmen (nee Lands) and slaughtered the zombies at the dinner table with a successful turn - corralling the zombies into a corner of the room. The War Mage in the party used two burning hands spells and the zombies existence was snuffed out.
Only 4 points of damage suffered by the party of 4 in total by the time they got to Filge’s bedroom.
It seemed to me that the standard tactics as set out in the module was going to produce a cake walk when the battle with Filge was joined. So in one of those times during a game where you need to stall, I made an excuse to go to the washroom to whip up a nefarious plan.
A few minutes later, I had one.
I determined that if the party ran now and never came back – there would be no serious continuity problems. By that point, the desk had been searched, the worm in the bottle recovered and the letter to Filge had been secured. There was enough of a bridge to 3FoE now if they never - ever - got Filge to talk.
The owl in the bedroom rafters had still gone unnoticed. I decided that Filge knew from the familiar and the smell of the burning zombies below what had happened. Filge thought it up quickly. He would try to bluff his way out of this one.
I retconned the room design. With the closet areas still unexplored in the bedroom, I decided to scare the poop out of my players.
The party went to the last closet area (dutifully and methodical as ever). They opened the closet door to find…a coffin. Inside of it was the headless corpse to which the lady’s head on the platter belonged. If they ever got to open the coffin, that is. I figured there was a damn good chance they wouldn’t go that far.
The players eyes shifted to mine uneasily. As they stepped towards the coffin, Filge cast a quick spell I then arbitrarily assigned to him: illusionary mist poured forth from the coffin.
SW: “The mist begins to coalesce in humanoid form.”
Dave: “Vampire??? Noooooo. Knowledge dungeoneering… would my character know?” *rolls 1*
Kevin: *eyes me with daggers at the thought the module would throw a vampire at a party this low a level. He remembers the owlbear and thinks…*maybe it might*
SW: *grins in response* “Actions please!”.
*the owl familiar flies down to deliver a touch attack scare on the cleric and the cleric saves, but nobody sees the owl* (There are about a dozen spot rolls over the next few rounds – but no one ever sees the owl).
Jason: “I turn undead!” *rolls very well, enabling 6HD of undead to be turned*
SW: “The coalescing form ignores your paltry attempt at turning!”
Jessica: “I swing at the coalescing form!” *sword passes harmlessly through the still forming illusion*
Jessica: “Uhm… can I get by it with my move action?”
Dave: “You don’t want to pass through that mist do you?”
Jessica: “I’ll keep away from the mist as it forms. I’m gone”.
Kevin: “I’m backing away!! *moves miniature for the stairs like the yellow coward he is*
Dave: “That’s it. The rogue runs again. Bah - Run away you coward!”
SW: “Some might call it cowardice…others…wisdom...”
Dave: “Disrupt undead!” *rolls 14 to hit*
SW: “The beam of positive energy passes through the mist”
Dave: “Right through the mist??” *eyes narrow* “Ok. I’m backing out being careful not to touch the mist.”
SW: The form coalesces and appears solid. *places vampire miniature on battlemat* Initiatives please!
Jason: “Turn again!” *rolls, computes result*.
SW: “The *thing* ignores your pathetic pleas to St. Cuthbert”.
Jason: “GAH! That’s it. Run away! Run away!!” *Runs for the stairs*.
Kevin: “RUN to the stairs!” Move+move *down to banquet level he goes*
Dave: “My beam passed right through it? Can I disbelieve?”
SW: The thing has not moved but it is still there. A flash of light emerges from its right hand as it begins to glow (*Filge casts spectral hand by that part of the static illusion*)
Dave: *unsure now* “I guess I back away to the stairs!”
Jessica: “Forget it! Run!!”
SW: “A beam of energy strikes Dave from the thing’s hand.” *ray of enfeeblement drains 7 strength*
Dave: “7 strength?? I’m in the negs to hit. Run!! Run!!”
And so it was that the “vampire” in Filge’s bedroom had the party fleeing for their lives out of the observatory. Dave was pretty certain it was an illusion, but waited until the enfeeblement faded after three minutes. Making his spellcraft roll, he knew that such a spell should have lasted far longer if cast by a powerful Vampire wizard.
Dave: “It was an illusion I tell you. Not a vampire – not a powerful wizard. We’ve been duped! Back I say.”
The party re-entered the observatory to find Filge and his troglodyte zombies trying to salvage what they could from the burned flesh of Filge’s doomed dinner party companions. The fight then unfolded. As I expected it was a cake walk – but overall – it was a lot more satisfying a battle and the players truly had it in for Filge now after having fled the “vampire’s” lair a few minutes before.
Original thread here: http://paizo.com/dungeon/messageboards/ageOfWorms/archives/anectodeWhisperi ngCairnTheFightAgainstTheVampire&page=1#33562
When my players stole Ilthanes egg at Blackwall keep with dreams of dragon ownership in their minds. I let a whole game session go before I had the egg hatch and spill worms all over the terrified PC's in their Inn room. They panicked and ran or jumped out windows. On Pc was knocked unconcious from the fall. The best part was the munchkin in our group Tony, who went out and bought a copy of Draconomicon right after they took the egg. It was great to see the looks on their faces. Especially when Ilthane reappeared and wiped out Diamond lake.
My players also took Ilthane's egg from the lizardfolk. They specified that they were being super careful while carrying it, so I let them take it. They managed to bring it all the way back to Diamond Lake and sold it to Smenk, claiming that Black Dragon Eggs fend off green worms. They did this, of course, knowing the dragon would likely come back for it. When (if) they get back from the Free City and see the swath of destruction from Ilthane as well as half the town turned into Kyuss spawn (let's say the worms incubated for a while and matured) there should be some serious alignment ramifications for the Lawful Good cleric of St. Cuthbert.
Oh gods, so many of these, just from tonight. In order...
<b>The Ettercap Follies:</b> Trudging through the mud of the Mistmarsh, the party stops to rest at a copse of mangaroo trees, not knowing that the place is strung with webbing. Of course, all three party members get webbed, and a wild goose chase ensues as the warlock (who eventually made his Concentration check and invoked spider climb + immune to webbing) tries to draw a bead on the one surviving-but-injured ettercap, who scurries around long enough for the secondary damages to start kicking in. The ettercap finally gets it and is thrown to the crocodiles, but the warlock is immobilizied by Dex damage. Attempts to communicate via mindlink get nothing but screams, so the rest of the party (no cleric) force feed him by massaging his esophagous and hope he gets better overnight. He does not. It takes a wandering druid NPC to fix him up (the druid joins the party long enough to help diplomatic relations with Hishka and to die at the trident of Shukak, thus setting up an opportunity for a later introduction of new PCs).
<b>Lizardfolk Endgame:</b> After Shukak was slain, the aforementioned kobold warlock jumps on his corpse, rips out his heart, and declares "I am the Lizard King!" And the lizardfolk accept him. He appoints one of the lizardfolk as his steward and goes to take care of Ilthane's egg, using the other lizardfolk to clear the area around the egg before the rogue nuked it with a burning hands wand.
<b>The Terror Below:</b> The encounter with the spawn of Kyuss beneath the keep may have been the most frightening thing I've ever DMed. From their shambling relentlessness to their unearthly cries of "joiiinnn ussssss..." and "Soooo... hungryyyyy..." to the fact that the party was totally outmatched by them made for great D&D. Best part of the fight was when they figured out a good use for slow-worm tainted potions - grenade weapons of CLW and CSW. The slow worm's benefit was nonexistent compared to the spawn's awful sizzling re-death.
I've officially given all three of those players a phobia of worms. Thanks, Sean K. Reynolds!