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Our first death was not a player - but an entire session. Right in the middle of the first battle, with Vark senseless on the deck of the Blue Nixie and his thugs rushing out to confront the trespassing party. DMs cell phone goes off. Production system down. All hands on deck.
We marked where everyone was on the map and trudged back home to deal with the problem. What a crappy way to end the first combat of the new AP. Work sucks.
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I have several more character deaths to report in the merciless STAP.
PC: Ojian Odessiran, Human Wizard lvl 9
Adventure: Here there be monsters
Location: The hallway outside of the sacrificial chamber in the temple of Demogorgon
Catalyst: Olangru's charge and pounce ability after having sustained damage fighting Olangru's mates in the harem.
In Ojian's case, he had been lightly injured in the fight with Olangru's mates in the harem. Unfortunately, the group wasn't able to finish all the mates off before one of them teleported away to warn Olangru that there were adventurers in the temple. The mate then teleported in front of the party in the hallway outside the sacrificial chamber and Knuckles moved to engage. Ojian took his customary place at the rear of the party and waited for Knuckles to take care of it. Olangru then teleported in behind the party and did a partial charge on his suprise round hitting Ojian with all 3 attacks dealing 55 pts of damage, killing the unfortunate Wizard. Once the fight was won, the party's Druid cast reincarnate on him and he came back as a half orc version of himself.
PC: Knuckles, Warforged Charger Fighter Lvl 1
Adventure: Here there be Monsters
Location: The temple of Demogorgon in the sacrificial chamber
Catalyst: Grapple, constriction, and Con drain from the Lemorian Golem after already taking a full charge and pounce from Olangru.
Knuckles had been staying up front to try to shield the parties spellcasters from the heavy melee damage that Olangru can deal. After Olangru was killed they didn't expect the Lemorian Golem to come to life and attack and were thus caught off guard. The golem successfully hit with all 4 tentacles and succeeded on the grapple check to constrict. Knuckles also failed his fort save, resulting in 4 points of constitution drain.
PC: Ojian Odessiran, Half-Orc Wizard 9
Adventure: Tides of Dread
Location: Just outside the temple of the Jaguar
Catalyst: Constriction and bite of the Emerald Anaconda just outside the temple
The entire party failed their spot check to see the hiding Anaconda, so Ojian had the rest of the party stay back while he went up to check the entrance to the temple for magical traps. The anaconda got the drop on him and hit with bite and constriction, with a critical hit on the bite to boot. Ojian took 72 hp total damage and was devoured for his trouble.
My players are picking out replacement characters for the next session, but they haven't even really delt with the hardest parts of Tides of Dread yet. They are insistent that they are going to hunt down the Green Dragon listed in the legendary monsters of the island, and they still get to face down the full force of the crimson fleet with Vanthus. I suspect within a few weeks I will be adding more obituarys to the ongoing list from the Island of Dread. Who'd a thought that the Isle would be such a massive meat grinder. Great job to all the designers who have made this the best AP yet!!!
First death in our campaign, and another point for Ripclaw.
PC: Tholnak Hugenheim, dwarf Fighter 2/Rogue 1
Adventure: "The Bullywug Gambit"
Location: The caves of Kraken's Cove
Catalyst: A critical hit from Ripclaw the Savage Deinonychus
After a long and wearying fight with several savage pirates and a savage phanaton, Harg (half-orc Ranger 3) wandered into Ripclaw's cavern to catch his breath. The dinosaur hit him like a runaway ore cart, bringing him down to 1 hp before he realized what had happened. Tholnak, realizing he had one chance to save his comrade, charged the dinosaur and tried to bull-rush it away from Harg. Tholnak and Ripclaw's opposed Strength check was ... a tie. So close. The dinosaur turned his savage hunger onto the dwarf (already wounded from the attack of opportunity suffered in the bull rush), and scored a critical hit with his talons, gutting the dwarf instantly (dropped to -13 hp).
Epilogue: The rest of the party unleashed the earth elemental from the gem found under Parrot Island. Tholnak's player ran the elemental, and in a nice bit of revenge, grappled Ripclaw, sunk into the stone floor of the cave, and left the dinosaur there to die. The elemental then carried the dwarf's body out as the surviving party members fled the caves.
The final death of my campaign, as the DM (me) is relocating. We fast forwarded to HTBM, mostly because it's such a cool adventure.
PC: Amaleth, Elven Enchanter 3, Master Specialist 5
Catalyst: Olangru's improved invisibility, pounce, and skirmish
The party managed to get the drop on Olangru's mates and were holding their own when one of the mates teleported away to warn Olangru. Olangru teleported to the den while invisible, and saw the unarmored elf standing away from the melee and making weird gestures with his hands. Olangru charged, hit with all of his attacks and disemboweled poor Amaleth (-28 hp). The player running Amaleth started running Skald (who survived the shipwreck b/c Urol was killed by the flotsam ooze) and ended up striking the killing blow against Vanthus (in order to provide some closure for the players, I sped up the timeline a bit and had Vanthus be a part of the 1st assault on Farshore).
This has been the best campaign I've ever run, and I'm truly sad to be leaving it. Thanks to all of you who put it together. Hopefully I'll get a chance to run it again at some point.
El Skootro
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Kudos, El_Skootro : I hope you'll be able to find cool players in your new area, and re-launch this great adventure path !!
How about a little update of obituaries :
- 1st adventure (TINH) : 43 PCs / 6 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 2nd adventure (TBG) : 18 PCs
- sidetrek before 3rd adventure : 2 PCs
- 3rd adventure (SWW) : 25 PCs / 5 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 4th adventure (HTBM) : 13 PCs / 4 NPCs-familiars-animals (not counting Avner's horse)
- 5th adventure (ToD) : 1 PC
- 6th adventure (TLD) :
ouch !, looks like both SWW & HTBM have had their share of dead characters !!
Thanks to Steve Greer, a deadly DM !
;-0
ouch !, looks like both SWW & HTBM have had their share of dead characters !!
Thanks to Steve Greer, a deadly DM !
;-0
Apparently not as a deadly a writer, though. Doh! 1 PC death so far?!
::Patience, my precious. Most of them haven't gotten that far in the AP yet. Once they do... SLAP! We crushes 'em like flies!::
PC: "Bart" (Human Druid 4)
Adventure: "The Bullywug Gambit"
Location: Vanderboren Study
Catalyst: Entering melee with Huntress Lub-Lub Torb as her favored enemy
As far as bad tactical decisions go, this one was one of the worst I've seen as a DM. Our human druid, only known as Bart because nobody remembered his full sailor name got within melee reach of the raging huntress. After Lorb-Lorb dropped the group's shifter monk in 2 rounds, she turned her attention to the next closest target, that being old Bart. Just FYI, a druid with an AC of 13 and no Con modifier to hit points should NOT be entering melee with boss-level monsters :) Hitting twice with her two hand axes in a full attack, she took poor Bart way past -10, carving out his internal organs as a trophy.
Enter the player's new PC, "Spoon" the warforged artificer.
Well, since my STAP camapaign ended tonight (I started a diffenrent thread to get opinions of whether I was right to do so or not) only two encounters into Chapter three, I'll list the one fatality we had in the game I was running.
It was during the Bullywog Gambit.
The 4th level Sorcerer Krasus announced to the group that he could take out Cheif Lorpth alone and the rest of them should concentrate on his rust monster pet.
After two magic missle spells, and the chief still not taken out the shocked sorcerer cried out in pain when the bullywug attempted a "Ha-san Chop" with a blunt weapon, taking him to a -12 hp.
PC: High Citizen Alastair van Orman, human druid 4
Adventure: Side-quest before SWW
Location: Stormy Shore village
Catalyst: Even though he's a druid with good con and wis, two failed saves to phantasmal killer spell (the big one) from a level 7 wizard named Delthis the Mad.
PC: Leah the Red, half-elf rogue 4
Adventure: Sea Wyvern's Wake
Location: Lost Tamoachan
Catalyst: Basilisk's glare petrified her, and 2 other PCs. Unfortunately there were only two stone salves, and she wasn't lucky enough to be chosen. With no way to get rid of this affliction for quite a long time: new PC.
First PC death from my group, on our second session.
PC: Tharval Straken, Human Cleric 2
Adventure: There Is No Honor
Location: Under Parrot Island, in the man-made sections
Catalyst: Zombie Pirate grappled, bit, and failed it's will save. Party couldn't save Tharval in time.
Tharval successfully turned two zombies into running away. When the group thought that the battle was over three more zombies came from the west. Tharval was approached by two zombies, and the turn before he was going to use sanctuary the two grappled him. Tharval failed his concentration check to cast sanctuary while being grappled, and soon one of the zombies knocked him down and began eating him.
The fighter almost died later in the dungeon with 1 hit point left, the wizard almost died with four hit points left, and the ranger almost died with eight or so hit points left. The group managed to take down the huecuva (spelling?) by having the wizard and fighter grapple it while the ranger continuously stabbed it with the silver dagger.
The party will probably honor Tharval somehow next session.
New Death!
Dudley Fairweather 5th level Swashebukler/Rog
Adventure: SWW
Catalyst: Rowan Kellini
Preface: In TINH Dudley and the party wizard parleyed with Rowan.With the help of some good bluff checks they convinced Rowan to pay them some coin as she made her offer, which Dudley and Gil, (the wizard) pretended (?) to accept. Meanwhile the rest of the party was heisting the LD flag map over the bodies of the fallen guild.... So rowan Hates the party, especially Dudley and Gil.
Also, before departing Sasseine, Dudley decides he needs to hire a bard to journey with them and make songs of his heroic deeds. He ends up at the Sasserine Sleigh ride, where he rescues Bridget, a young strumpet with a singing voice and convinces her to make the voyage. (after running her pimp thru with his elven thinblade) Anywayyy..........
So Rowan impersonates Bridget and, thanks to Dudleys +1 will save, manages to get him naked and overboard to play with her shark. Dudley manages to climb up the anchor chain and escape the shark after being only badly mauled.
So after the commotion, the PC's narrow down who was on deck,and find bridget hog-tied (probably not for the first time..)to the
stove in the galley. Rowan had been impersonating a cook/serving woman... serving woman is on deck.... they figured Rowyan out.
So Rowyan beats EVERYONE at INIT, casts hold person and moves up to and behind the now held Dudley,(who fails his 3rd will save in a row) suffers AOO's from the party's Hadozee and 1/2ling scout, and COUP DE GRACE for poor old dudley. Rapier through the base of the skull. Rowan fell the next round under a flurry of blows from the surrounding party members.
After three sessions with no character deaths (though several close calls), three come along in one session!
PCs: Kuro, halfling Monk, and Tevacc, human Cleric
Adventure: The Bullywug Gambit
Location: he basement, Vanderboren Manor
Catalyst: Chief Lorpth of the Trub Glorp bullywugs, and his big stick
Having fought their way successfully through Vanderboren Manor despite splitting the party three ways, and rescued Lavinia with no casualties, the party made their way down to the basement to rescue poor Liamae. Most of them stood back, tackling the threat posed by the rust monster with ranged weapons and spells. Only the completely non-ferrous monk, after a brief reassurance that his hands wouldn't dissolve if he used his Fist of Iron feat upon the beast, made the trudge through the mud to tackle the monster hand-to-antennae.
Chief Lorpth and his attendants were slow to join the battle, but nevertheless, by the time the rust monster was slain they were already on top of the halfling monk. His allies soon joined him in battle, but by then he had already suffered one grievous blow from the Chief's club. Refusing to retreat, he pummelled futilely at the hideous frog-man once more, before the massive club dashed his brains out.
The Cleric, Tevacc, arrived moments too late to provide healing to the brave monk, and though others were attacking his warriors, the chief focused his ire upon Tevacc next. The other bullywugs were soon slain, and Lorpth was seriously injured, but nevertheless, his massive club claimed a second victim, Tevacc dying only seconds before Chief Lorpth followed him to a muddy grave.
PC: Skalath, human Dragon Shaman (bronze)
Adventure: Sea Wyvern's Wake
Location: Aboard the Sea Wyvern
Catalyst: A big blue Slaad
The voyage was going well so far, apart from that nasty incident with the Mephit, when poor Father Feres was stricken by a terrible illness. Having just recently lost their friendly Cleric, the party had nobody on board with sufficient medical knowledge to even attempt to remove the strange pulsing cyst growing in his stomach, and the closest help was six days away, back the way they'd come. Hoping to hail a passing ship, the party resolved to monitor his condition for the next few days until help could be obtained.
The next day, it was Skalath's watch to look after the slowly deteriorating Feres, and he was greatly surprised when his illness began progressing more rapidly, the prominent symptom being Feres's body ripping asunder as a large Blue Slaad tore its way out of him.
Managing to recover quickly from his surprise, Skalath ran out of the cabin and cried out for help. As he leaned against the door, he was greatly surprised when the Slaad stepped straight through the wall behind him. He held his ground, attempting to counter-attack, but it shrugged off his efforts, then laid into him with all four sets of claws, inflicting hideous wounds and leaving him barely standing. Then it bit his head off.
PC: "Aeris Render" (Shifter Monk 5)
Adventure: "The Sea Wyvern's Wake"
Location: Flotsam Ooze encounter
Catalyst: Flotsam's devastating slam attacks vs. grappled monk
Poor monk never had a chance. He hits the ooze for some decent damage, then the ooze hits back for way more, and sticks to him but doesn't pull him over the side of the ship. 2 rounds later, a dead shifter monk is absorbed into the ooze, just as the group realizes the warlock can blast the thing from afar with no retaliation possible. A pointless death, but fun nonetheless.
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After many near misses, we are saddened to report our first entry into the obituary thread.
PC: Tokler Ness (commonly known as "Murk"); Water Genasi Ranger, Lvl3 (ECL 4 due to water genasi adjustment)
Adventure: Bullywug's Gambit
Location: Cavern "maze" in Kraken's Cove (room 12)
Catalyst: Savage Pirates
The party, after a nasty run in with Ripclaw, who was able to get the drop and use his pounce to full effect, had healed up somewhat and had pressed on. The Water Shugenja had felt it prudent to bestow the gift of enhanced scent upon the Ranger to enhance their ability to sense danger. This had proved successful on a few occasions; unfortunately the "maze"like quality of the caverns in area 12 had thrown this ability off. Murk sensed danger, but could not discern it's direction very well. He did know it to be the by now familiar acrid smell of the savage fever infected creature.
He was nonetheless caught flat footed when the three savage pirates popped out at them from around a tight corner. 2 of them were able to immediately charge him, and both rolled critical hits with their scimitars. The resulting 34 points of combined damage sent him to -9, and with the protective aura of the dragon shaman nearby, all was not lost: Murk immediately stabilized.
Sadly, however, it was his comrades' attempt to save and protect him that cost him his life. The savage pirate that laid Murk low was charged from the rear by the raging barbarian, who easily killed the pirate outright, and the resulting acid splash finished Murk off.
Long will the memory of Tokler Nass live fondly in the hearts and minds of his comrades. TO MURK!!
Skald killed in Here there be Monsters,died in the pit torn apart by the mob of Monkeys.Tavy Nesk killed by the rock slide trap at the mouth of Demogorgons temple.Avener and Thunderstrike lost in the Fogmire.......
Ooh, ouch. That's just like an episode of Star Trek. Were they wearing red shirts?
First death of the AP. Don't you hate it when a PC death comes with a moral that the PC is supposed to learn and they don't get it? -sigh-
The Bullywug's Gambit, Vanderboren Manor.
The party dispatched Drevoraz and the cleric very quickly and feeling perhaps a bit over confident at the ease of which they dispatched their foes, the rogue and Zan scouted ahead. The rest of the party was two rounds of movement behind the pair. Zan found the secret door containing Kaskus and stayed behind the berate the dwarf for setting off the trapped chest like an idiot.
The rogue Hides/Move Silents downstairs. Good rolls combined with an ungodly Hide/Move Silent check leaves the bullywugs unaware. The player read the map wrong, thinking that he was at the bottom of the stairs instead of the top, and sneak attacks the nearest frogman thug. The froggy drops and the rogue is then surrounded by two remaining thugs and the Cheif. Three hits latter, the rogue is down to -24. The cleric shows up one round later (house rule states that if the cleric can heal you to -9 or less before your next turn, you might make it)leaps down, and slaps a cure mod on the rogue. The Cheif smashes him again to -10 and the cleric fails her concentration check just before getting smashed by the other thugs. The cleric stabilizes at -3 and the wizard dazes the chief into submission.
Lucky for them, Lavinia was so impressed by their heroics that she footed half the raise dead cost.
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New update of obituaries :
- 1st adventure (TINH) : 44 PCs / 6 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 2nd adventure (TBG) : 24 PCs
- sidetrek before 3rd adventure : 3 PCs
- 3rd adventure (SWW) : 33 PCs / 5 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 4th adventure (HTBM) : 15 PCs / 8 NPCs-familiars-animals (not counting Avner's horse)
- 5th adventure (ToD) : 1 PC
- 6th adventure (TLD) :
- 7th adventure (CoBI) :
Here's three more PCs for There Is No Honor, one more NPC, and one more familiar. (Total party kill.) This was in our third session. (Instead of starting over the campaign, Lavinia hires five more heroes to investigate the disappearance of the old party. We also got a new player for next session.)
PC: Dalder Pilwicket, Gnome Wizard 2
Adventure: There Is No Honor
Location: The Crucible
Catalyst: Killed by the crocodile while trying to heal Dwobbel.
Dalder Pilwicket, gnome noble of Sasserine, was seeing his comrades die before him. Duin was crushed by the crocodile's jaws and began to die slowly while Dwobbel was also slowly dieing after getting slammed in the head by the crocodile's tail. Dwobbel attempted to heal Duin but failed, and soon fell victim himself to the hungry beast.
PC: Dwobbel Loopkor, Gnome Cleric 2
Adventure: There Is No Honor
Location: The Crucible
Catalyst: Killed by the crocodile.
Dwobbel Loopkor, cleric of Pelor and friend of before mentioned Tharval Straken (who died in the second session), came along with the group to avenge Tharval. Sadly, soon after Duin the dwarf was bit to almost death by the crocodile the beast slammed its tail into the side of Dwobbel's head, knocking him against the wall which sent blood flying everywhere. His death shortly came.
PC: Duin, Dwarf Fighter 1 Barbarian 1
Adventure: There Is No Honor
Location: The Crucible
Catalyst: Crocodile bit Duin to death.
Duin, famous dwarf gladiator of the Champion's District, was fetched by his buddy Dornar to help the party find Vanthus Vanderboren in the Lotus Dragon Guildhall. He was never in the party for long, as when they were in the Crucible he was in a long grappling fight with the crocodile. He escaped its clutches many times, but soon the croc had him and killed him.
NPC: Dornar Balsim, Dwarf Fighter 2
Adventure: There Is No Honor
Location: The Crucible
Catalyst: Crossbows and crocodile = dead dwarf.
Dornar saw all of his companions die from the crocodile, but before he could not avenge them as bolts were being shot at him from the east continuously. No one is sure if his death was from the crocodile or from the bolts, as he has many chunks out of his body and bolts in his head.
Familiar: Dwobnor the Toad
Adventure: There Is No Honor
Location: The Crucible
Catalyst: The crocodile says, "Munch, munch!"
Dwobnor died along with Dwobbel, his master, from the hungry jaw of the crocodile.
It's funny, because every single character and familiar's name started with the letter, 'D.' Purely coincidental, too.
New update of obituaries :
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- 2nd adventure (TBG) : 24 PCs
- 3rd adventure (SWW) : 33 PCs / 5 NPCs-familiars-animals
...
Interesting -- "The Bullywug Gambit" looked at first like it was a massive meatgrinding combat scenario, but "Sea Wyvern's Wake", the "roleplaying" scenario, has gotten significantly more kills. (Though "TBG"'s tough fights are pretty much just Ripclaw and Drevoraz, while "SWW" has the hydra, the flotsam ooze, the Mother, and her spawn.)
PC: Annah Jareth, dragonborn monk/rogue/swashbuckler
Adventure: City of Broken Idols
Location: Final Chamber
Catalyst: Improved grab + constrict + rot
The party was quite surprised to find an aspect of Demogorgon at the center of the shadow pearl plot. Twin heads roaring in rage, Khala unleashed an unholy blight as its opening salvo. Downing several potions of fly seized from the fiend's kopru servants, the party took to the air to bring the fight to the aspect. While Zan the half-lillend bard and his tibbit illusionist companion dealt with Khala's skulvyn pets, Annah, the elven swordsage Aelest and the human warblade Samantha Quickblade engaged the aspect of Demogorgon in melee. Annah closed her eyes to avoid its debilitating gazes, but unfortunately she was unable to effectively dodge its attacks with her eyes closed. A clawed tentacle wrapped around her and began to squeeze, Khala's foul touch causing her flesh and bones to rot even as it squeezed the life out of her. In the span of a few seconds, all life had fled the dragonborn, and the aspect discarded her broken body. Fortunately, the rest of the party was able to destroy Khala before it could slay any more of them.
Poor Krath. Our PC's Cleric (Sea Monkey race from StormWrack) of Valkur bit it in a horrific showdown in Fogmire. Having fought bravely to reach seperated companions clutched by the Demomonkeys (one of whom stood off Olangru, a Mate, and the Golem for 3 rounds) that Cleric and company entered the main shrine where they fought the evil trio. Using his inherent magics, Olangru easily appeared behind the party, seperating the main beater (Dragon Shaman), fighting him to a standastill for many rounds. Meanwhile the Golem engaged the Cleric, and four attacks with four fortitude saves per hit proved too much, reducing him to the severe negatives as his body became a dessicated husk. Only through the death of Olangru and the usage of the dragon shaman's breath weapons and my wizard's spells were we able to defeat both menaces. Olangru and the Golem at once is near TPK!!! Churtle, having risen levels in Ninja, also met a grisly end as Olangru teleported her into the fire pit twice, burning her to death.
Adventure: There is No Honor
Casualties: 1 scout, 1 conjurer, 1 riding dog animal companion
The crab encounter soaked up most of the party's spells, and they were unable to rest once trapped in the tunnels by Vanthus and discovered by the zombies. The cleric turned a few zombies, and the party pursued them deeper into the tunnels. However, they encountered more zombies and ended up engaging the majority of the zombies at the same time. The scout and riding dog went down quickly, and the rest of the party fled deeper into the complex. The meal provided by the fallen party members slowed pursuit considerably. The cleric (also a 1/2 aquatic elf) was able to swim out and open up the entrance. While he was doing so, however, the conjurer couldn't resist opening 'one more door.' The final remaining zombie was waiting, and chased the wizard around the complex (waiting for the cleric to open up the entrance) before finally catching and eating him. A near-TPK.
Of note, I lost as many PCs in this single session of 'Savage Tide' as I did during the preceding 27 session home brew campaign. Those zombies were tough!!
Paul
PCs: Nyx, Human Crusader 1/Cleric 2, Jaerie, Human (bronze) Dragon Shaman 3, Toth, Sun Elf Fighter 1/ Rogue 1/ Shaper 1
Adventure: The Bullywug Gambit
Location: The Hall of Hanging Silks
Catalyst: Ripclaw vs. 3 frontliners
With one player MIA as well as his character sheet the other three decide to wade into the Bullywug Gambit anyway. They have some tough fights and a bit of over excited party splitting to avoid the path down to the beach and only an act of DM mercy kept the two savage pirates from coup de grasing the future Elocater in the round before the party arrived. Not particularly put off by the near death from the savage pirates they push through. Straight into Ripclaw's pounces and full attacks. The party encircled him, as buffed as they could, but it wasn't enough and Rippy shredded everyone there.
Mad Roger Rackham swashbuckler ranger leviathen hunter was killed by ( Your gonna burn in his flame ,your gonna know his name ZOTZILLA ,ZOTZILLA... 30 stories high up in the sky ZOTZILLZ ZOTZILLA...)in TIDES OF DREAD>>>>>>>
Burning through the night, a horrific sight- ZotZilla! Zotzilla!
Burning Wings of Flame, your gonna scream his name- Zotzilla! ZotZilla!Half Fi-re..and-Half-Hate! He's gonna wipe you off his plate! Zotzilla! ZotZilla! Zotzilla!
Olman God of Dread, listen to what i said! Zotzilla!!!!
Sorry, we've been chanting this song for the past three weeks. The lyrics keep changing but its done in the key of E with standard 4-4 timing to a Heavy Metal beat. He definitely lived up to all the hype, as we thought we were all going to die horribly in the flaming depths of his burning belly! Zotzilla!!!
PCs: Lucil (NG female human sorcerer 1/cleric 3/mystic theurge 1),Orba (CG female human barbarian 5), Piet Flickbert (NG male human rogue 4/swashbuckler 2)
Adventure: Sea Wyvern's Wake
Location of Death: Atikula River
Catalyst: the hydra's fast healing ability
Long Description: Like so many times, there were only three of my five players present this session.
The Jaderavens supported them halfhearted with ranged attacks and spells. It was simply chaos and the resulting endless battle.
First the mele combatants climbed into the rigging and fired arrow after arrow, while the hydra tasted sailor after sailor. Crazy! They were not able to deside which tactic to perform: slaying the body or cutting off its heads.
The battle was three and a half hours long and 25+ rounds in game time. Terrible! Very frustrating to see my players panic. I am glad it is over.
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Brand new grand total :
- 1st adventure (TINH) : 49 PCs / 9 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 2nd adventure (TBG) : 27 PCs
- sidetrek before 3rd adventure : 3 PCs
- 3rd adventure (SWW) : 36 PCs / 5 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 4th adventure (HTBM) : 16 PCs / 8 NPCs-familiars-animals (not counting Avner's horse)
- 5th adventure (ToD) : 3 PCs
- 6th adventure (TLD) :
- 7th adventure (CoBI) : 1 PC
M. Greer, you've tripled your grand total !!
Module: The Lightless Depths
Character: Donner, human cleric 11
The party had made their way into the first Troglodyte lepper chamber, the cleric and sorcerer still choking on the nauseating vapours of the skull torches. One troglodyte lepper dropped a shatter spell on the jar of green slime and it splattered all over the nauseated cleric. Unable to react to the flesh eating slime and accompanied by a party without any relevant knowledge skills, he went down in a smoking heap of dissolved flesh in 3 rounds.
Donner helped defeat the Lotus Dragons, slew savage pirates and bullywugs, sailed the Azure Sea to the Isle of Dread, fought simian demons and defended Farshore from attack. In love with Lavinia and a wielder of a holy weapon, he was defeated by ... green slime.
Brand new grand total :
- 1st adventure (TINH) : 49 PCs / 9 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 2nd adventure (TBG) : 27 PCs
- sidetrek before 3rd adventure : 3 PCs
- 3rd adventure (SWW) : 36 PCs / 5 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 4th adventure (HTBM) : 16 PCs / 8 NPCs-familiars-animals (not counting Avner's horse)
- 5th adventure (ToD) : 3 PCs
- 6th adventure (TLD) :
- 7th adventure (CoBI) : 1 PC
M. Greer, you've tripled your grand total !!
Phooey! Just gettin' warmed up.
Two more deaths in Sea Wyvern's Wake, both attributable to the Flotsam Ooze, and coincidentally the only two characters remaining who had been through Chapter One (which rather screwed up the Rowyn subplot, leading to a hasty but satisfying conclusion as she threw all her remaining might into one concerted attempt to slay Lavinina).
That ooze is a nasty piece of work - the automatic grapple and free slam attack basically dooms anyone it catches unless the others can find a way to dish out lots of damage, very fast.
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Another has fallen...
PC: Krogan. (Sorcerer, rogue, ranger)
Adventure: Sea Wyvern's Wake
Location of Death: Bottom Hold of the Ship
Catalyst: Was searching for a possible stowaway sabotuer and assassin, and found "it". Unfortunately, he failed a Hold Person Save and then died in the third of four rounds of stabbing death...
Character: Seth (Goliath Warblade); Lilliane (NPC/Sea Wyvern passenger)
Adventure: The Sea Wyvern's Wake
Location: Atikula River (River Menace Encounter)
Catalyst: A very hungry Aquatic Hydra.
The hungry Hydra attacked both Seth and Tursk (The other fighter in the party), Tursk was brought down to negatives so the party's cleric had to assist him as quickly as he could. But the Hydra then concentrated only on Seth, attacking with all its seven heads, killing him.
By witnessing this, Lilliane, one of the passengers who was on land by that time, foolishly attacked the Hydra, the Hydra attacked back before the party could intervene, killing poor Lilliane.
After the party killed the Hydra, they opened it and they found a dead body with a ring, this ring would bring back Seth from the death. Just to be killed again in the next encounter.
Character: Seth (Goliath Warblade); Jules (Follower)
Adventure: The Sea Wyvern's Wake
Location: Aboard the Sea Wyvern
Catalyst: Tursk, yes Tursk.
While the party was sleeping, Rowyn Kellani managed to get into their room very quietly, killing Jules who was the only one awake guarding it but he was very sleepy, so he didn't noticed her entering the room, one blow was enough to kill the poor guy.
After this, Rowyn used her invisibility to cut a yardarm so it fell upon some PCs, (i had a terrible roll at dealing damage), the PCs woke up just to notice poor Jules lying dead on the floor. After this, she attacked the party's sorcerer, revealing herself, she was attacked by some of the PCs. The next round, Rowyn managed to charm Seth and tod him, "They're your enemies, you have to kill them all!", he obeyed. My players tought, "Let's use lethal damage, until he is about fifteen HP", they inflicted him lethal damage, he attacked them as well, but was Tursk who never got to disarm him with his spiked chain and with a critical hit cut Seth's throat, leaving him in -14. He didn't thought he would score a critical against his own friend.
After the battle against Rowyn, who was calcined to death by a critical hit by a scorching ray. Seth was raised again by Adara, a Cleric aboard the Blue Nixie.
TPK yesterday night in Dark Mountain Pass (Here there be Monsters, fourth installment of STAP).
Heroes:
- Aspar, human Dusk blade VI/Dragon Disciple I
- Raphael, human Rogue VII
- Valdis, human Cleric VII
- Urquell, half-orc Barbarian II/Fighter V
- Human Bard VII
Cause of death: Black Pudding.
The Black Pudding was cut in three parts in the first round of combat. Afterwards only the dusk blade inflicted some damage to the fell creature, while the cleric tryed curing everybody but to no avail: the others were rapidly dissolved in the acidic monster. The party was already in bad condition after the encounter with the two Gargantuan Centipedes... and the pudding ended it all in a few rounds. pity.
TPK yesterday night in Dark Mountain Pass (Here there be Monsters, fourth installment of STAP).
Heroes:
- Aspar, human Dusk blade VI/Dragon Disciple I
- Raphael, human Rogue VII
- Valdis, human Cleric VII
- Urquell, half-orc Barbarian II/Fighter V
- Human Bard VIICause of death: Black Pudding.
The Black Pudding was cut in three parts in the first round of combat. Afterwards only the dusk blade inflicted some damage to the fell creature, while the cleric tryed curing everybody but to no avail: the others were rapidly dissolved in the acidic monster. The party was already in bad condition after the encounter with the two Gargantuan Centipedes... and the pudding ended it all in a few rounds. pity.
Spinotron, I'm going to start a new thread for DMs like you that have had a TPK running STAP to see how you and others pick up and move on (or maybe you don't?).
Hiya.
Honestly, I can't remember where/when everyone's characters died...so I'll just give "The List" of characters names. Also note there there may be a few characters we couldn't remember (but probably no more than two or three):
Sovallis
Ned
Shonda
Bartel
Eria
Penello
Rurik
Kotai
Eberk
Keth
Enalis
Bardel
Carth
Ivellios
Bascu
Anthony
Eana
Carboonis
Miotox
Cakikrack
Lucious
Chaun
Urlynd
Garrok
Razor
Arden
Noraak
Othello
Rathorn
Kagi
Arbiger
Yellw
Greywalker
Ignie
Gavorin
Sanders
Tane
Winnie
Tremma
The Fox
Althinia
Melnaious
Steve
Avovaxithez
Ziwikiwiki
Nice list, huh? There's only 45...more to come, I'm sure. ;) There are 5 players in the group (including me), plus the GM (who doesn't play a character..just fyi).
Got another one for the pile.
PC: Ardemash, Goliath Warblade 12
Adventure: The Lightless Depths
Location of Death: Bottom of the ziggarut in a pool of Black Bile
Catalyst: An urge to keep anything from "getting away" coupled with an uninformed approach to Black Bile.
The party entered the final chamber of the Ziggarut, confronting the Bilewretch of Holashner. The creature spat it's burning goo, then dived beneath the surface to recharge. Ardemash was not content to let the creature either recharge or escape and dived in to give chase. His Elder Mountain Hammer maneuver with a wounding claw bracer brought the creature down seventy-some HP, but the immersion in black bile (10d6 acid per round) for two rounds, plus the clinging breath weapon (6d6 acid and fire plus 3d6 acid and fire on the subsequint round) plus a full attack by the bilewretch where every attack hit equaled one goliath that never surfaced again.
ANWAR ROSZNAR: A nefarious bard who wormed his way into Lavinia's home and heart, thus taking on the leadership role in her group of hired heroes, the Legion. Anwar brought down the Lotus Dragons by posing as Penkus. He charmed the socks off of Harliss Javell with his silver tongue. He had Skald framed for murder aboard the Sea Wyvern. He encouraged the 'mercy killing' of Father Feres. He sold Avner Meravanchi into indentured servitude to the Mazticans of Renkrue. When shipwrecked on the Isle of Dread, rather than bemoan the unknown whereabouts of his love, Lavinia, he instead set out upon a new conquest...Amella, and won her heart as well. Alas, it was his underestimation of the party's unknown stalker, Olangru, that led to his downfall. During the bar-igura ambush in the ruins of Fogmire, Anwar met his end at Olangru's hands.
Rest in peace, old friend. You'll be missed...
One of my players chose the name Merivanchi for the players guide, and we settled on him being a nephew of the family. He was an overweight mage. The PC died right at the end of BWG, struck down by the bullywog cleric in the final fight. The player decided roll-up a different character to cover some tactical holes in the group.
I had the Merivanchis' raise him and send him along as an NPC bodyguard to his cousin Anver. He has become a major thorn in the side of the group.
The same player in on his fourth character, although one death was his choice. He had an elven rouge turned into a pincushion in the Lotus Guildhall (scouted ahead and decided to attack alone rather than report back), the Merivanchi mage described above, and a human duskblade, struck down with a combination of mummy-rot (long story) and vine horrors in SWW. The duskblade was reincarnated as a female dwarf (he WANTED me to roll for gender). Since he doesn't like playing cross-gender, he asked to bring in a new character. The old one was eaten by the T-Rex in HTBM. I feel like I'm picking on him, but he is having a blast.
Currently he is a feral lizard-man druid they met at the start of HTBM (running from that same T-rex).
One other death in BWG. The party fighter was killed in one round by the half-orc pirate. She got better, though (resurected).
So, in summary:
1 death in TINH
2 deaths in BWG
1 death in SWW
1 death in HTBM (same character)
Mostly the same player.
First death in our campaign, and another point for Ripclaw.
PC: Tholnak Hugenheim, dwarf Fighter 2/Rogue 1
Adventure: "The Bullywug Gambit"
Location: The caves of Kraken's Cove
Catalyst: A critical hit from Ripclaw the Savage Deinonychus
Same thing for our campaign. First death, and yet another point for Ripclaw
PC: Lintrishi, Human Female Hexblade 3Adventure: "The Bullywug Gambit"
Location: The caves of Kraken's Cove
Catalyst: A critical hit from Ripclaw the Savage Deinonychus
The group of 5 characters was walking through the cavern, with Lintrishi covering the rear. She failed her listen check vs. Ripclaws move silent and he managed to sneak up and bite her in the buttocks. Combat started, a few rounds later and a two critical hits, she was laying dead on the ground at -18 hp.
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New update of obituaries' thread :
- 1st adventure (TINH) : 50 PCs / 9 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 2nd adventure (TBG) : 30 PCs
- sidetrek before 3rd adventure : 3 PCs
- 3rd adventure (SWW) : 42 PCs / 5 NPCs-familiars-animals
- 4th adventure (HTBM) : 23 PCs / 8 NPCs-familiars-animals (not counting Avner's horse)
- 5th adventure (ToD) : 3 PCs
- 6th adventure (TLD) : 2 PCs
- 7th adventure (CoBI) : 1 PC
Sorry Pming, I did not take the deaths of your campaign into account : information are too vague.
What happened to your campaign that the death toll is so high ?!?
Too few players ? Inexperienced ? Bad balance of character classes ? Players' mistakes of foolish bravery ?
Something else ?
I think (or guess) that lots of people would be interested to read a brief story of your ST campaign...
Ok so we had another PC death last nigth.
Oh sorry we had 3.
Adventure: Sea wyverns wake
Location: Sea Wyvern
Catalyst:Blue Slaad
So my players didn't react to Father Feress getting sick, the partys cleric discovered the symptoms and dicided not to do anything but wait a few days.
One gory evening later, and there was a large blue frog running amok on the ship. It managed over a one hour dash around the ship to kill 3 party members and 11 crew and passengers before dying to a balliasta shot.
The PC's were
Miram, Female human fighter1/cleric 4
Leila, Female human Scout 1/figher 4
Annoah, Female human Warblade 5
My party, as usual, rolled some pretty dysmal dice rolls, managing an average hit percanteage of close to 20% With so poor rolls there wasn't much i could do to help them out, even neglegting to use the slaads summoning abilities did not help
this is the frist death in are group so far
PC: Gara Tashr,human male,rogue 2nd
Adventure: "There is No Honor "
Location: the smuggler tunnels below parrot Island
Catalyst: close combat with three zombies
after finding themselves traped with in the tunnels the group looked for a way out of the lightless depths. after fighting off the frist group of zombies and the crabs the party set out to explore. after being cornered by a group of zombies gara being the fastest on the draw charged in . lacking any slashing weapon his attack was not affative saddly leaving him flanked on all sides.befor his comrads could do anything gara was torn apart by the zombies{all 3 bits hit for a total of 12 dmg,not to bad but saddly all he had}.his compains were able to destory the ravenous dead as they fested upon poor gara's body.
PC: Alain Desh, Human Sorcerer 2
Adventure: There is no Honor
Location: Under Parrot Island
Catalyst: An extremely lucky Ravenous Zombie Pirate.
He had barely begun to use his powers.
A powerful man, Alain lived most his life as a sailor, however near the end of his life, strange happenings began to occur around him. Objects hurtling through the air while he dreamed, beams of light sprouting from his hands when he became enraged at his foes. Alain was shunned by his crew and was forced to take up with mercenaries on the land.
With his trusty cutlass in hand, Alain cut his way through goblins and pirates in several daring adventures with his comrades: Captain Solomon Trenchcoat (Human Swashbuckler) and Grug McGrug (Orc Fighter [Thug]).
His last adventure saw him fending off hordes of zombies as he and his friends were trapped beneath Parrot Island by the villainous Vanthus Vanderboren. After felling one attacking undead monster, and fighting hard alongside his allies, his throat was torn out by a ravenous zombie pirate in a single vicious bite, Alain was dead before he hit the floor.
[The zombie Criticaled with an natural 20, and confirmed with another natural 20.. he then proceeded to roll exactly 1 point below maximum damage.. and Sorcerers, regardless of how unnaturally high their con scores are, are still not known for their abundance of hitpoints. The blow took Alain down from full to -10 in a single roll. The characters player spent the rest of the game working out the probability of those fatal rolls... apparently they're very unlikely!]
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First PC death to report!
PC: Karakos (lvl 4 swordsage)
Adventure: BWG
Location: Vanderboren Manor Basement
Catalyst: The Chief's Power attack
After freeing Lavinia, the group decided to follow orders and find the missing ravens.. without healing. Needless to say - the second time Karakos got Clubbed over the head by the chief bullywug he went to -10 exactly.