Mister Fluffykins |
I'd been planning on holding off until after I finished Burnt Offerings, but there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. First-time players both make me smile and kill my soul one adventure at a time.
The party line-up at the start was: Cesare (Human Arcanist), Faust (Human Cleric of Zon-Kuthon), Thomas (Human Paladin of Iomedae), Kimber (Half Elf Investigator), M'thaine (Halfling Ranger) and Alec (Vanara Gunslinger). The LE Cleric managed to hide himself in part by being a perfect gentleman on the outside, and in part because the paladin was terrified of potentially being stunned for detecting evil, and thus never used the ability.
Name of PC: Thomas
Class/Level: Paladin (of Iomedae) 1
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Tsuto and Goblins
This time around, though, the party opted to go straight in on the offensive. No dual-pronged attacks, just everyone down a relatively narrow tunnel - as it happens, the goblins and Tsuto's initiative rolls were just where they needed to be to shoot at the paladin after he rounded the corner into sight. He promptly dropped down into the negatives, and failed to stabilize.
His comrade, Alec, decided to hoist his unconscious body up and use it for cover. The rest of the party's bravado faltered, and they wasted several rounds doing relatively little - rounds the goblins used to fill Thomas' body full of more arrows.
They were joined next session by the player's new character, Benzo (Shoanti Invulnerable Rager Barbarian). A little uninspired, but he's a new player and he's trying to get into the game, so I permit it happily.
Name of PC: Alec
Class: Gunslinger 2
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Sinspawn Ambush
The rest of the party opted to go back 10-20 feet and then go down the stairs, which gave the sinspawn the rounds they needed to beat Alec to death.
Name of PC: Benzo
Class: Barbarian (Invulnerable Rager) 2
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Koruvus
A boat trip to Magnimar in between sessions by Cesare resulted in the hiring of Issac (Human Fighter 3), and Adam (Human Rogue 3). After bonding as a group during the Day of First Brewing, they all headed off to Thistletop. Unfortunately for them, I rolled a 95 on a percentile, netting them a random encounter during their two days on the road.
Name of the PCs: M'thaine, Adam
Classes: Ranger 3, Rogue 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Ankheg Random Encounter
After Cesare and Kimber fled a ways off to cast what few buffs they had, the Ankheg scuttled up and took a bite out of M'thaine, who provoked another AoO trying to stand up. It was Adams' turn - unfortunately for him, the only way to set up flanking was to stand on the party's campfire. Which he promptly did, missing on his attack and setting himself aflame. The Ankheg finished M'thaine off with a critical hit, before Issac finally finished kitting up and joined the fight - Adam continued to roll poorly, and continued to take fire damage; the Ankheg swiped him down.
Then came Kimber's return. You might never have played an Investigator, but they can easily get their AC up to near 30 by L3. Combined with a Ray of Enfeeblement from Cesare, the Ankheg had 0 chance of hitting her, nor the fullplate clad, shield-wielding Issac, and they whittled it down between the two of them.
NobodysHome |
Not to run off with this thread (I already got chastised in another obit thread for posting a non-obit), but I think the whole, "Eek! We're being attacked! 3/4 of us should run away and leave the remaining people to fight alone!" needs to stop.
Unfortunately, at the rate they're dying, they're just going to get MORE cowardly, not less, and the killings will continue until morale improves...
...The rest of the party's bravado faltered, and they wasted several rounds doing relatively little...
...The rest of the party opted to go back 10-20 feet...
...Other players don't kill him... (hoping that was bad rolling, rather than another retreat)
...After Cesare and Kimber fled a ways off to cast what few buffs they had...
Every single combat seems to have players either running away or failing to do anything. Whee!
Askren |
Name of PC: Murik Deverin
Class/Level: Freebooter Ranger 4
Adventure:Burnt Offerings
Catalyst:Tentamort in Thistletop
They rested for 8 hours in Nualia's chamber, wherein he regained consciousness, but not more than 10 or so HP. They for some reason decided to push on, and check the as-yet-unexplored rooms in the dungeon, they found the Tentamort's cave. They failed to spot it among the rock of the ceiling, and it got the drop on Murik, lashing out and grabbing him with it's tentacles and stinging him with it's poison. Already massively injured, he couldn't take it, and was killed.
Having no access to resurrection, the party had to write off their loss, abandon the fort, and bring his body back to Sandpoint for burial.
He's now thinking of making some kind of caster to compliment the party that already consists of two casters, none of whom are healers.
Kalshane |
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Not to run off with this thread (I already got chastised in another obit thread for posting a non-obit), but I think the whole, "Eek! We're being attacked! 3/4 of us should run away and leave the remaining people to fight alone!" needs to stop.
Unfortunately, at the rate they're dying, they're just going to get MORE cowardly, not less, and the killings will continue until morale improves...Mister Fluffykins wrote:Every single combat seems to have players either running away or failing to do anything. Whee!...The rest of the party's bravado faltered, and they wasted several rounds doing relatively little...
...The rest of the party opted to go back 10-20 feet...
...Other players don't kill him... (hoping that was bad rolling, rather than another retreat)
...After Cesare and Kimber fled a ways off to cast what few buffs they had...
Personally, I'd be pretty miffed as the Paladin's player. I can possibly understand not healing him while he was down, if there were too much risk involved. But actively using his unconscious body as a shield is pure jerkitude.
Latrecis |
NobodysHome wrote:Personally, I'd be pretty miffed as the Paladin's player. I can possibly understand not healing him while he was down, if there were too much risk involved. But actively using his unconscious body as a shield is pure jerkitude.Not to run off with this thread (I already got chastised in another obit thread for posting a non-obit), but I think the whole, "Eek! We're being attacked! 3/4 of us should run away and leave the remaining people to fight alone!" needs to stop.
Unfortunately, at the rate they're dying, they're just going to get MORE cowardly, not less, and the killings will continue until morale improves...Mister Fluffykins wrote:Every single combat seems to have players either running away or failing to do anything. Whee!...The rest of the party's bravado faltered, and they wasted several rounds doing relatively little...
...The rest of the party opted to go back 10-20 feet...
...Other players don't kill him... (hoping that was bad rolling, rather than another retreat)
...After Cesare and Kimber fled a ways off to cast what few buffs they had...
I think the original story was the paladin had failed to stabilize. It was ambiguous whether that was failed to stabilize and died or failed to stabilize and was still dyING. But agree jerkitude is a good word. I hope plenty of sin points have been assigned to players who have done such things. Using your dead companion's body as a meat shield is deplorable behavior - may not be evil per se, but certain to incur the ire of any dieties concerned with honor, war or the dead.
Mister Fluffykins |
Nope. The paladin was good and stabilized. Gunslinger just wanted cover. I use a sort of, eh. How best to put it. "Coordinates system" for determining alignment - you aren't just Lawful Good, you're (80,80).
I marked the gunslinger a good chunk of the way towards evil, warned the player I'd let this one slide but I wouldn't tolerate any further jerkitude of that magnitude, and gave the paladin's player's next character a second hero point for his new character (for being stiffed).
LordCoSaX |
I finally had my first character deaths last night. I couldnt believe my eyes, but the party had a near TPK against the Skaveling in the caverns below the Misgivings.
Name of PCs: Pierce, Caïus Vrison, Bolni ''Luckybeard''
Class/Level: Ranger2/Rogue2, Magus 4, Cleric 4
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Skaveling
The party's ressources were depleted, with Kruger the barbarian standing at 14 hp, Bolni all out of heals and channels, Caïus out of spells and Pierce had some stat damage from eating some of Vorel's fungus. Feeling greedy, they decided to explore the last corridor that they had left untouched, which is the one that leads to the Skaveling's den.
Now, I knew this would be bad but they really had a shot, 2 characters being strong with a bow. As they entered the beast's lair though, everyone but Pierce failed to notice the creature, and the bat won the initiative roll. When it screeched, EVERYONE failed their fortitude save, even the barbarian and cleric who both have +8 to their save. I then proceeded to roll max duration for the stun for everyone except Kruger, who got stunned 1 round.
The rest is a mix of bad luck and bad decisions. The creature dropped Caïus (who was in front) to -9 before anyone could act, but he managed to stabilize, 1 hp away from death. Kruger shot an arrow at the beast, dropped his bow and waited for it with his greatsword. Sadly, the creature put him in the negatives by rolling max damage on its first attack against him.
At this point 2 players are down and the other 2 just came out of stun. Retreat seems like the only option. Unless you are Pierce, in which case you still want to fight. Instead of trying to drag his friends to safety, the heroic ranger shot 2 arrows (using rapid shot) at the ghoul bat. He rolls a 17, the first one is a hit! He rolls the second one...its a 20! Everyone is going crazy, that gamble might actually pay off! He tries to confirm his crit...its a 9...its not enough. He uses a Hero Point (the last one he's got) to reroll, and gets an 11, he would have needed a 12 to confirm. Still, its 2 hits, but if he had confirmed that crit he would have most likely killed it.
Now everyone urges him to run, or try and drag Caïus' unconscious body to safety. Bolni doesnt wait for him, he drags Kruger's body to safety over the course of the next 3 rounds. During this time Pierce stands his ground and shoots arrows, trying to finish the job. He is now 1v1 vs the Skaveling. Sadly, he misses 4 attacks in a row and gets killed for his efforts.
After dragging Kruger to safety, Bolni tries to go back for Caïus, who is still alive. He runs to his body and starts dragging him back, unfortunately, the undead bat touches him on his attack and Bolni fails his save against paralysis. Another one bites the dust.
A while later, Kruger wakes up alone near the stairs that lead back up to the Misgivings. He barely makes his way back to Sandpoint with his tail between his legs.
I guess Caïus was pretty much screwed no matter what, but the other 3 could have made it out alive with better decision making. We spent the rest of the session making new characters, and I think they might be more careful in the future. I will now have to find a way to introduce Kruger to his new companions, 2 Aasimar brothers (paladin and sorcerer) and an elvish alchemist.
W Canepa |
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Halfway through Thistletop and my group of players has not died yet, but the ranger lost a leg from just below the knee in the
The runewell may sustain the sinspawn, but they still eat when they have the chance.
The ranger got healed, minus the leg, and is using a peg-leg until he can get to Magnimar to either have it healed or get some sort of fancy prosthetic. (I'm including a little more wealth in the adventure to cover this, but the temporary hindrance is amusing.)
To be fair, this is a group that often splits the party, has little team cohesion, and I took the chance to drive the point home.
Mister Fluffykins |
Okay, so I'm actually really pleased with this character's death - hear me out, hear me out! That's not as awful a sentiment as it initially seems to be. The full story is in the spoiler.
Name of PC: Issac
Class/Level: Fighter 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Warchief Ripnugget
But what really made me happy was that things just started to click for people. They didn't ask me a single time questions like "How do I calculate attack bonus?", or "What makes up my AC?" - and they managed to do all of that accurately on their own, something that hadn't happened for the last five sessions. Previously, I'd had to stop and tell them how it all worked at least three to four times each time we sat down. Suffice it to say, I was pretty happy with this.
But what really made me grin, as a longtime RPG player, is that they began actually interacting with the game world. They talked to NPCs without prompting - meaningful conversations, not just "I want to charter a room at the inn", and they began thinking outside the box. For example, when they came across the bridge into Thistletop, the wizard suggested that the party all clamber inside the Bag of Holding Type II they'd pooled money to construct while the investigator snuck them across since she was the only one who can sneak (I use a modified "Encumberance Points" weight system, so chances are their bag was off by a few points - I was just so tickled with their creativity I let it slide).
Things went a little downhill during the fight against Ripnugget. They managed to eventually get it down to just him and Stickfoot against all of them, but none of them had landed a hit on either him or the gecko during the entire fight - then it happened. Ripnugget rolled a Natural 1. He was flung from his gecko, and had to exit the square he was flung into because he couldn't end his turn in an enemy square - provoking an AoO from every party member. Every single one of them hit with their AoO, and two of them confirmed critical hits, dropping Ripnugget in a single round. But not without penalty: Ripnugget had scored a critical hit on Issac the round before.
The card that was drawn? Lung puncture. Our intrepid, freshly-out-of-healing heroes had to watch on in horror as their ally drowned to death in his own blood (failing his Fort save each round). This is where things got interesting though - I was about to pack up, since we were finished up for the night, when the Cleric piped up "I don't have healing - but I do have lesser animate undead!"
Then they got even more ideas, and the cleric asked if he could burn a Hero Point to return Issac as a Zombie Lord instead. I allowed it, for the burning of two points from each of them - and an understanding on Issac's player's part that he'd be leveling at a slower progression than the rest of the party from now on. Did I, perhaps, put too much power into his hands? Maybe. But they burned the points to do it, and you've all seen the turnover rate for my campaign so far - besides, with the amount of creative thinking and roleplaying that went on tonight, I was willing to let em have some kind of special reward.
Black Tom |
Name of PC: Sandre, Dimar, Travis (NPC), Vale Temros (NPC)
Class/Level: Paladin 8, Fighter 8, Bard 6, Ranger 2/Fighter 4
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Lucretia (and a bored DM)
Gorthog |
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Name: Correlia C'tar
Class/Level: Sorceror 8
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Confusion
The group's luck took a turn for the worse when they entered Dorella and Hookmaw's room. The ogres had heard the adventurers and Dorella had made them both invisible. They then attacked with surprise, with Dorella hitting the entire party with Confusion. It was bad: Jakardros, Kibb, the rogue, the fighter, and even the cleric all failed their Will saves. Only Correlia and Shalelu made their saves! Correlia made some progress in weakening Hookmaw and Dorella, but Dorella then softened him up with a Lightning Bolt. Regrettably, the fighter then rolled the attack nearest person option, and his full attack knocked Correlia all the way to -12. Correlia failed to stabilize and died soon after.
It was a terribly close fight. At one point, everyone was unconscious or dead except the rogue (who was ineffective since she was confused and Dorella was backed into the corner) and Shalelu, who was in bad shape herself. Thankfully, Shalelu used her Wand of Cure Light Wounds to get the fighter and the cleric back up. The cleric used his last channel to get Jakardros and Kibb back up, and that spelled the end for Dorella. (Hookmaw had fallen earlier.)
The party had Correlia reincarnated as a human. He had been a half-elf. The player was hoping for a different race, and so I won't be surprised if the player is very reckless at our next session...
slayer_of_gellcor |
Name Alyx
Class/Level Roc Animal Companion
Adventure Burnt Offerings
Catalyst Malfeshnekor
Gallo |
Name: Horse and another horse
Class: Horse
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Generally not putting skill points into ride or thinking you'll even have to fight on horseback in campaign
The party returned to Turtleback Ferry for the flooded town scenario.
Boa Constrictor attacks. Swashbuckler Zoran heroically rides to rescue the kiddies and teacher. Boa takes AoO on his horse. "Ahah!" says Zoran. "I'll make a ride check to avoid the attack". "Umm, you don't have the right feat" says rest of party. Zoran does spectacular tumble check to leap off dying horse and land on upturned boat.
Meanwhile Durak the Dwarven Stonelord Paladin (in stone plate armour no less) - with a ride check penalty of -7 - is impotently trying to make his horse move forward in the four feet of raging water.
Party slays the boa and Vik the Master Summoner summons three water elementals to tow the upturned boat and kiddies to safety.
Meanwhile Durak is still trying to move his horse (I made the check get progressively easier each round). He finally gets horse going just as Black Magga appears. Somehow Durak falls off his horse and lands in water slightly deeper than him (wearing stone plate armour was helping neither his ride checks nor his "how do I get out the water" checks (but his overall lack of buoyancy certainly helped his "not get washed away in the torrent check"). As the elemental-powered boat passes Durak's horse Zoran leaps on it and charges Black Magga. One AoO later horse number two is dead.
Somehow in amongst all this Durak's earth elemental pet gets twice knocked close to death. Once by the boa and once by Black Magga. Cue discussion about whether earth elementals breath and whether a boa crushing one would think that an unconscious one is actually dead or still alive and therefore keep constricting.
Durak finally remembered he had a Belt of Enlarge Person….. Just as Black Magga breathes her confusion breath on the party. The Summoner and Time Oracle (gorgeous half-elf sisters) standing on the boat with Ms Schoolteacher and the kiddies both failed their save as did the poor frightened civilians (as would be expected). Summoner punches schoolteacher into unconsciousness and then she and sister punch the bejeezus out of each other. Fortunately the effect ended just as the totally terrified, traumatised kiddies were next in line.
So no character deaths but lots of fun for everyone in a very enjoyable, but fortunately deliberately brief, encounter.
Redring |
Name of PC: Tomas "Knive" Bancroft of Sandpoint (Possibly the perfect name for someone who kills himself with an imaginary dagger!)
Class/Level: 5
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: A shard of sharpened wood, and a badly severed carotid artery.
Story:
The entire game table was standing up for the last save. :)
Khazrandir RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 |
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My party has recently completed RotR:AE, and now I get to recap our various deaths!
Original party: Zyle (Human Sorcerer), Keliarna (Human Rogue), Gorek (Dwarf Ranger), Caladrel (Elf Fighter)
Name of PC: Keliarna
Class/Level: Human Rogue
Adventure:Burnt Offerings
Catalyst:Malfeshnikor
Party: Zyle (Human Sorcerer), Keliarna (Human Rogue), Gorek (Dwarf Ranger), Caladrel (Elf Fighter), Octavia (Human Paladin)
The players were very careful through the next book, and Gorek was a giant-killing menace for the next two.
Name of PC: Vale Temros (Gorek's cohort)
Class/Level: Human Ranger/Fighter
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst:Confused party, and an Elf's poor decision
Name of PC: Caladrel
Class/Level: Elf Arcane Archer
Adventure:Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst:Azavan's Finger of Death
Name of PC: Caladrel
Class/Level: Elf Arcane Archer
Adventure:Spires of Xin-Shalast
Catalyst:His Evil Twin
Name of PC: Zyle, Octavia, Anika (Gorek's cohort)
Class/Level: Human Sorcerer, Human Paladin, Dwarf Cleric
Adventure:Spires of Xin-Shalast
Catalyst:Karzoug's Image - Wail of the Banshee
Name of PC: Caladrel
Class/Level: Elf Arcane Archer
Adventure:Spires of Xin-Shalast
Catalyst:Karzoug's Meteor Swarm
Caladrel had 3 deaths, while everyone else died once. Except, of course, the stalwart dwarf Gorek, who survived every threat that was thrown at the party.
The Dark Knight |
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Name of PC: Vanwamar
Class/Level: Half-Elf Druid Level 4
Adventure: Burnt Offertings: Assault on Thistletop
Catalyst: Fire Trapped Backpack
Story:
Half the party was cut off by the bridge trap on Thistletop. 3 on the Fortress side, 4 on the thistle maze side. While fighting the four goblins mounted on goblindogs, Vanwamar went down. He was the only one with a health potion in his bag.
Vanwamar and the rogue, Rin, never got along so every day he cast Fire Trap on his backpack just in case Rin tried to steal something off of him. Rin runs over to try and help him and detects the trap. Using his rogue skills he learns what it is and how it works.
Failing to disable it, a brief argument at the table broke out (GM won). There was no way to get into the bag, either by directly opening or cutting a hole, without detonating the trap. The battle was no where near done and Vanwamar was at serious negative levels.
Yolo was declared and the bag was opened. The resulting explosion killed Vanwamar. The rules were checked and he was not safe from taking damage from his own trap. Rin then drank the health potion.
el cuervo |
As a side-note, she was wearing a Sihedron Amulet, and her soul was funneled to Karzoug's Runewell of Greed
This should not have had that effect. The Sihedron medallions don't act that way; only the Sihedron ritual does this. In addition, what would be the point of the gentle repose effect the medallion has on the wearer's dead body if the wearer can't be resurrected or revived due to the wearer's soul being captured in the runewell? EDIT: I realize that you could put the medallion on the body after death, but still, the medallion does not have the described effect of siphoning the soul to the runewell in the first place.
I realize it's too late now but just wanted to make sure no one else gets confused by this.
NobodysHome |
Technically, even after the Sihedron ritual people are resurrectable, as the Soul Lens only takes part of a person's soul:
This does not significantly damage the soul (although it does cause a significant amount of spiritual anguish) -- a creature that dies and has its soul filtered through the soul lens can still be brought back to life as normal.
I missed this little tidbit for my campaign, so I had all kinds of fun terrifying the PCs: They couldn't even Speak with Dead with people killed by the ritual, nor did Blood Biography work, so they were loathe to kill anyone with a Sihedron tattoo.
But yes, I played it as only the tattoo plus the ritual to put on the tattoo, but the PCs didn't know that and it added a huge amount of angst to the game. Both my players and I really liked that little twist.
And now, back to your regularly-scheduled obituaries...
agrael |
Thistletop. the great battle of the bridge!
Ernie the goblin murdered his dog and two of his friends. but was burnt to death by a gnome and buried with honors!
an alchemist thiefling fell at the hands of the skull scorpion in skulls crossing.
the fighter ran away.. the sorcerer ran away.
the gunslinger could not f@*%ing miss
the alchemist fell down, but was not dead...
the gunslinger sent the bastard to 1hp!.. but fumbled the final shot....
the alchemist then healed to put him on 2 hp.. tried to stand up.. but got a pincer for the effort and died
AbyssLord |
Name of PC: Rune
Class/Level: Elf Alchemist (Mindchemist) 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Shadows
The Dark Knight |
Name of PC: Belobog
Class/Level: Catfolk Monk Level 4
Adventure: Burnt Offerings: Assault on Thistletop
Catalyst: Being possessed by Lamashtu.
Story:
Instead of having the regular effect for the "Waters of Lamashtu" I had the evil deity possess any player foolish enough to drink the water after failing a will save. Belobog drank from the fonts inside, became possessed and attacked the group just as Hell Hounds came to life from monster carvings on the walls. Belobog went down and the party killed the Hell Hounds. Just as the cleric was about to exorcise him, the ranger opened fire and killed him just to be safe.
Name of PC: Danuve
Class/Level: Half Elf Cleric
Adventure: Burnt Offerings: Assault on Thistletop
Catalyst: Death of Belobog
Story: The cleric was heartbroken and enraged that the monk was killed before she could save him. She then tried to avenge him. Being a cleric she was quickly cut down by a critical from the ranger and a sneak attack from the rogue behind her. Her deity may or may not demand revenge for her death.
NobodysHome |
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Name of PC: Hi Ichiban Whoop Griggledy Piggledy Wonk Wonk Great Googley Moogley Ow My Finger Don't Hit Me It Wasn't My Idea Fig Fig Banana Fo Fama Whomp Whomp Whoopledy Doo Zzzzzzzz
Race/Class/Level: Gnome Sorcerer (Elemental Fire) 17
Adventure: The Spires of Xin-Shalast (The Pinnacle of Avarice)
Catalyst: A determined Ceoptra
Story:
This ranks right up there with "most bizarre and lengthy death I've seen in an RPG", and beautifully shows how familiarity with the rules isn't enough; you need a "rules monkey".
Shiro the bard knew that Ceoptra was a caster, and prepared Greater Dispel Magic as a counterspell. She knew he was ready, and sent a lamia hungerer over to distract him as she cast Destruction on Hi. So Shiro attempted to counterspell anyway. Since the hungerer was within reach, she took her attack of opportunity and hit. Unfortunately, Shiro had Shocking Images up and she hit one, taking damage and spraying acid all over Shiro. Not exactly her plan for disrupting his counterspell, but it did force him to make a Concentration check to cast. Shiro succeeded on his Concentration check and his Caster Level check to get past Ceoptra's SR, but didn't quite roll high enough to dispel the spell. Hi failed his Fortitude save and was dead as a doornail... (So yes, three different creatures rolling d20 five times to resolve a single action.)
...EXCEPT as we were knocking Hi's figure over Shiro's player noted that it was a Greater Dispel Magic, giving him +4 for counterspelling, so it was actually just barely enough to dispel the spell.
All that work, and Hi was legally still standing.
Two rounds later, Ceoptra had only 2 hit points left, end even Ethereal Jaunt wouldn't save her because she was adjacent to an angel with True Seeing and plenty of nastiness left in her back of tricks. Ceoptra fired off another Destruction, and this time Shiro wasn't ready with a counterspell, so it struck true.
Once again, Hi failed his save, and once again, Hi was dead...
...EXCEPT after we went through all the roleplaying and die rolling of Ayruzi using the scroll of True Resurrection they'd found earlier, Hi's player asked, "Is my Death Ward still up?"
We all groaned, and, sure enough, Destruction is a death spell so Death Ward applied.
In our final "bone-headed GM" move of the evening, I made the classic Death Ward mistake and granted him immunity from the effect instead of the mere +4 to his save (he only rolled a 3). So Hi was alive again without having to use up their precious scroll.
But I started prepping Karzoug this morning and thought, "Wait a minute! Death Ward doesn't grant immunity from damaging death effects! Just negative energy!"
So technically, Hi died and had to be brought back with a scroll of True Resurrection.
It took quite a while, but we finally got it right.
NobodysHome |
Name of PC: Belobog
Class/Level: Catfolk Monk Level 4
Adventure: Burnt Offerings: Assault on Thistletop
Catalyst: Being possessed by Lamashtu.
Story:
Instead of having the regular effect for the "Waters of Lamashtu" I had the evil deity possess any player foolish enough to drink the water after failing a will save. Belobog drank from the fonts inside, became possessed and attacked the group just as Hell Hounds came to life from monster carvings on the walls. Belobog went down and the party killed the Hell Hounds. Just as the cleric was about to exorcise him, the ranger opened fire and killed him just to be safe.Name of PC: Danuve
Class/Level: Half Elf Cleric
Adventure: Burnt Offerings: Assault on Thistletop
Catalyst: Death of Belobog
Story: The cleric was heartbroken and enraged that the monk was killed before she could save him. She then tried to avenge him. Being a cleric she was quickly cut down by a critical from the ranger and a sneak attack from the rogue behind her. Her deity may or may not demand revenge for her death.
Oooooh... drinking random waters from an evil shrine and then engaging in ruthless PvP. This party's going to go faaaar...
...I look forward to reading their further exploits here in this thread.PatientWolf |
Name of PC:Dolgrin
Race/Class/Level: Dwarf/Fighter(Phalanx Fighter Archetype)/3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst:Warchief Ripnugget
Gorthog |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Name: Keiko Komatsu
Class/Level: Ninja 13
Name: Nobatu Kaijitsu
Class/Level: Fighter 13
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst: One Very Deadly Ancient White Dragon...Oh, Wait! Aren't They ALL Deadly?!
An invisible Arkhryst was waiting for them, and the group all failed their Perception checks. He nailed the whole group with his breath weapon, and the adventurers desperately fought back, although overcoming the buffed ancient dragon's AC and SR proved to be challenging. The dragon chomped the ninja with a Power Attack-enhanced, critical-hit bite and then smashed her to paste with his claws; she wound up at -79 hp! Not long after that, Nobatu also fell victim to one of Arkhryst's full-attacks, ending up at -39 hp, even though this one did not involve a crit.
In the meantime, Alika and Jake were gradually wearing down the dragon. A successful Disintegrate sure improved the heroes' prospects. Things looked very grim, though, when another use of the breath weapon sent Alika down to -4 hp, leaving Jake as the last man standing. Arkhryst, protecting his treasure hoard and sensing that he still had the advantage, decided not to flee. Jake's last Lightning Bolt brought the dragon down to 12 hp, but the dragon then managed another bite-crit like the one that killed Keiko. The dragon's 2d6-hp-per-round cold aura then brought Jake down to 2 hp. The wizard, who was low on attack spells, successfully cast defensively a lowly Magic Missile spell and overcame the dragon's spell resistance, dropping it to -5 hp; he then used his move action to get out of range of the cold aura just in the nick of time and used a Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds to revive Alika.
The players, who have become very attached to their PCs, breathed a collective sigh of relief and agreed that it was one of the closest fights they had ever experienced. I had to concur with them! Talk about a narrow escape!
The Dark Knight |
Oooooh... drinking random waters from an evil shrine and then engaging in ruthless PvP. This party's going to go faaaar...
...I look forward to reading their further exploits here in this thread.
Thanks. I'm a first time DM and only one other person in the party has played a table top RPG before.
PvP is always ugly, best nip that in the bud before several hundred pages of your game don't get played.
I've seen it happen and I tried to mitigate this by not allowing any of the players to be evil. Still the party gets along fairly well and are actually bonding with one another. The finality of death is what makes the game so exciting for all of them.
Name of PC: Ghost
Class/Level: Ranger Animal Companion Wolf Level 1
Adventure: Burnt Offerings: Assault on Thistletop
Catalyst: Malfeshnekor/DM wanted a plot twist
Story:
Malfeshnekor turns invisible and flees out the door and slams it shut behind him. Ghost failed his reflex save. By the time they make it outside "Ghost" is lying in a pool of blood with a large gash on this throat. They save him and those in the party who speak Sylvain notice "Ghost's" voice is much deeper since his injury.
I added a crypt full of undead right before the treasure room because the party had utterly ANNIHALATED Nualia and I couldn't end the dungeon without a climactic battle at the end. No one noticed "Ghost" taking down the zombies and skeletons with one hit due to the chaos at the time.
They make it to the Crab inside the Helmet and as the gate comes down locking them in, "Ghost" reveals his true nature and transforms in front of the whole party. The look of shock and horror on everyone's face was priceless, none more so than the Ranger, "My wolf!"
The ensuing battle was tough and exciting. It ended with Grebs shooting down Malfeshnekor from the ceiling as he was using Levitate on the unconscious Tiefling Fighter, Evelthor, to bring him to his waiting maw. One of my favorite sessions so far.
el cuervo |
Name of PC: Ghost
Class/Level: Ranger Animal Companion Wolf Level 1
Adventure: Burnt Offerings: Assault on Thistletop
Catalyst: Malfeshnekor/DM wanted a plot twist
Story:
** spoiler omitted **...
Malfeshnekor is sealed inside his prison; he can't escape unless someone dispels the magical barrier. That's why he hasn't moved in literally thousands of years. Long story short, he shouldn't have been able to flee his prison chamber to attack your ranger PC's animal companion outside the room.
Gorthog |
Thanks, Jahvul! Yeah, I have two different groups playing this adventure path now, one in chapter 3 and the other in chapter 5, and it's been a lot of fun...especially seeing just how differently it has gone for each group.
In the future, though, I will run two different APs at the same time. I need to make some headway on the pile of APs that I own but haven't run yet!
The Dark Knight |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The Dark Knight wrote:Malfeshnekor is sealed inside his prison; he can't escape unless someone dispels the magical barrier. That's why he hasn't moved in literally thousands of years. Long story short, he shouldn't have been able to flee his prison chamber to attack your ranger PC's animal companion outside the room.Name of PC: Ghost
Class/Level: Ranger Animal Companion Wolf Level 1
Adventure: Burnt Offerings: Assault on Thistletop
Catalyst: Malfeshnekor/DM wanted a plot twist
Story:
** spoiler omitted **...
Yes, I am aware. I changed that detail to make the story more exciting for my group.
Gluttony |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Not a PC, but a relatively-major allied NPC:
Name: Vale Temros
Race: Human (male)
Class/Level: Fighter 4/Ranger 2
Adventure: The Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: 'Pappy' Jaagrath Kreeg
Story Time: The party's barbarian Atali figured out that Jaagrath was another barbarian, and thus that using her decent CMB to grapple the guy and prevent him from using the big two-handed weapon he was swinging around was probably a good idea. She didn't know that it was a human bane weapon, but didn't take a single hit from it because she grappled successfully. Atali did get some of her face bitten off, but she took it rather well (i.e. stuck a sword in the ogre's face in return).
...Vale did not come up with this strategy. When Jaagrath got low on health and decided to fling Atali at the paladin Uriel, knocking them both over so that he could run past and escape, it was Vale who was standing between the ogre and his backup, Dorella. Vale got a good strike in with his battleaxe, then took a human bane ogre hook to the face from a high Str ogre barbarian who rolled well. Vale was at single digit hit points when this happened because he'd been the one holding the rear and fighting two generic ogres from elsewhere on the floor, who'd come running when they'd heard fighting.
Poor schmuck didn't stand a chance, really.
The Dark Knight |
]Name of PC: Kaed
Class/Level: Human Shapeshifter level 5
Adventure: Journey to Foxglove Manor
Catalyst: Random Bandit Encounter
Story:
Riding Bull |
Yay for my first one! Thou I went for a cheap shot to teach them a lesson.
Name: Vidarok
Race: Half-orc (male)
Class/Level: Druid / 4
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Rogors Craesby
They had just discovered Hambleys body and Ilori, target of lust was reading the scrap of parchment, when Vidarok noticed movement at corner of his eye. Rogors charged for him from behind and while Vidarok had noticed the ghast, Rogors was too fast and got his paralysing bite in and before Ilori managed to act, Rogors had snapped Vidarok's neck and was aiming for the Sorcerer next..
Tangent101 |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Tsk. You realize that killing them doesn't teach anything. You have to MAIM them, but let them live.
Think of cats. They don't immediately kill the birds and mice they catch, more often than not. They PLAY with them. You let the PC get off by just killing him rather than having him dragged off while paralyzed and then having a ghoul taking small bites out of him while his friends look for him...
You had a perfect opportunity for horror here. And you wasted it with the quick kill.
Riding Bull |
It served quite a spoonful of horror when they first time in their 3 month long RPG history realised their characters can actually die :)
Cheers for the future idea thou! I didn't feel like going for the same shot last night when that same Druid, after being brought back to life, chose to charge in to middle of some yellow fungus only to be met by another set of ghoul teeth.. So I just let him stand there inhaling the spores while rest of the ghouls moved past him.
Riding Bull |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So umm.. About that Druid. He really didn't learn a thing, but went outwith a bang!
Name: Vidarok
Race: Half-orc (male)
Class/Level: Druid / 5
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Foxglove Mansion
They make it out after tricking the crows in (with clever plan!), but then they get over confident and start throwing last of their spells at the mansion itself.. After couple hard spell hits and low moans from the building, the Sorcerer is spooked by a phantasmal killer, but she manages to resist the fear and starts to convince everyone to leave.. Only Vidarok ain't done yet. He has couple shots of Call Lightning left and he is determined he can bring the building down.. But when he suddenly is faced with his long past sister turned into a abomination that is about to devour him, he suddenly stops breathing and dies out of fear.
P.H. Dungeon |
Character: Thaddeus Voke (human, inquisitor 8)
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Cause of Death: While exploring the dam at Skull’s Crossing, Thaddeus is attacked by a “Skullripper” (scorpion construct). He is pinned by its pincers. Unable to escape he takes extensive damage and eventually has his head popped clean off his body.
PatientWolf |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Name of PC: Devar
Race/Class/Level: Half-Orc/Rogue/Level 4
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Malfeshnekor
Story:
NobodysHome |
Name of PC: Devar
Race/Class/Level: Half-Orc/Rogue/Level 4
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Malfeshnekor
Story: ** spoiler omitted **
Too hilarious! Our gnome sorcerer *almost* suffered an identical fate, except big M rolled a double fumble (1-1-3 against a sorcerer? Really, M?) on his second claw attack and lost a round, allowing the rest of the party to save said gnome.
Khazrandir RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 |
Khazrandir wrote:As a side-note, she was wearing a Sihedron Amulet, and her soul was funneled to Karzoug's Runewell of GreedThis should not have had that effect. The Sihedron medallions don't act that way; only the Sihedron ritual does this. In addition, what would be the point of the gentle repose effect the medallion has on the wearer's dead body if the wearer can't be resurrected or revived due to the wearer's soul being captured in the runewell? EDIT: I realize that you could put the medallion on the body after death, but still, the medallion does not have the described effect of siphoning the soul to the runewell in the first place.
I realize it's too late now but just wanted to make sure no one else gets confused by this.
Sorry! I should have noted that my GM invented this. He likes to make sure that deaths are meaningful parts of the story, and not just "Whelp, I'll just roll up a new character!" especially at low levels before resurrection is easily accessible. So, finding and rescuing Keliarna's soul became an additional motivation for our party. I wouldn't call it GM fiat because he brought up the idea and we discussed it, agreeing that it was an interesting way to go.