RotRL Obituaries

[CommandoDude]

Name of PC: Rook
Race/Class/Level: Dwarf Cleric 8
Adventure: Horror of Hook Mountain
Catalyst: Overconfidence and trolls who hit like a freight train
Story: After descending into the dam and coming into a room with a large murky pool, the party was ambushed by trolls with spring attack. Despite getting several opportunity attacks on them, Rook tried to move to the other side of the pool, thinking that his high racial AC vs giant subtype would prevent him from being hurt. He was wrong. About three trollish powerattacks to the face he was outright dead, with his CON blown through. Luckily his party saved him, first with Pawn the goblin Monk retrieving the scroll of Breath of Life from his body and passing it to Bishop the Aasimar Inquisitor so that he could bring Rook back to life.

Name of PC: Rook (Again)
Race/Class/Level: Dwarf Cleric 10
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Flying without a license and a series of unfortunate rolls
Story: During the attack on Sandpoint, the party was concerned most about the appearance of a huge dragon, with Rook and Bishop deciding that it needed to die soon. After casting Blessing of Fervor and having the party witch Ephyia cast Enlarge Person on him, Rook got up in front of the dragon and taunted it. After it moved in to engage, Bishop cast Litany of Righteousness on him - but despite having True Strike up managed to roll a 1 on his Manyshot attack roll, and did a LOT less damage to the dragon then expected. Rook began hacking away as well, but also missed most of his attacks. (He left the dragon we later found out on 5 hp and would've killed it if he rolled higher on his damage dice). The dragon then got to have a full round of natural attacks on Rook, which dropped him. Unfortunately both were in the air and Rook died from the fall.

Name of PC: Bishop
Race/Class/Level: Aasimar Inquisitor 10 / Cleric 1
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Failed his save or suck
Story: After being ambushed by Mokmurian in his lair, Ephya the witch was hit hard and forced to retreat by the giant's spells. He then turned his attention to Bishop who he knew was an extremely deadly archer and cast Disintegrate on him. Bishop failed his save and was instakilled, turned to dust and untreatable by Rook's memorized Breath of Life spell..

Name of PC: Ephya
Race/Class/Level: Elf Witch 10 / Rogue 1
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Being a squishy caster
Story: After losing a bunch of HP and CON to several spells, including Cloud Kill, Ephya retreated from Mokmurian's room to heal herself, and returned after Bishop had died to try and help the party by Dimension Dooring into the room. Rook had been trying to pin Mokmurian in place, and stopped his spellcasting with a Silence spell, but couldn't prevent Mokmurian from moving due to his Mobility feat. Eventually, all of the suviving party had him in melee, including the Witch who was stuck between a wall and Mokmurian, who killed her using Whirlwind attacks to strike the whole party.

[Karolina Dean]

So this is my final contribution to these obituary boards. Hope you guys have enjoyed our contributions to this thread. I have really enjoyed everyone else's stories and they helped me prep for my own games by knowing which encounters were potentially more deadly than others.

We'll be moving on to Wrath of the Righteous (voted in by my players). ...Wish me luck heh.

Name of PCs: Crosis, Himmelsdorf, Seelah, Kyra, Ayruzi (TPK)
Race/Class/Level: Respectively... Human CG Bloodrager 7/Dragon Disciple 10. Elf CN Arcane Archer 4/Ranger 12/Sorcerer 1. Human LG Paladin of Iomedae 17. Human NG Cleric of Sarenrae 17. NG Planetar, Angel.
Adventure: Spires of Xin Shalast
Catalyst: BBEG
Story This is going to be crazy long but I kinda wanted to immortalize it for our group.

Huge spoilers pertaining to final fight of game, you have been warned.:

Where to begin? The group decimated Ceoptra, though she gave the low-Wis Dragon Disciple, Crosis, problems when she knocked him out by reducing the stat to 0. They were able to heal his Wisdom damage to full with little difficulty.

The anima focus bewildered the group. I described Ceoptra's greenish soul getting absorbed into the focus, and how it whirred to life and glowed bright green. The players did not put two and two together to realize that this was how Karzoug was returning to power, that this was the end result of all of his minions being tattooed with the star all the way back to the Skinsaw man hacking the symbol into his victims, greedy souls becoming siphoned into the device and therefore into Karzoug's clutches. They were afraid to touch it, and made some low low knowledge rolls to ascertain its use beyond the hints given. Finally I told them that the runes on their domineering weapons glowed blue in its presence, and throbbed with warmth and energy. Taking the hint from how they dealt with the Karzoug images, they started whacking the device with Crosis' domineering falchion. This opened the portal into the Eye of Avarice. They peered in, and saw distorted images of the platform, surrounded by molten gold (I swapped the lava for molten gold since I wanted to maximize the "Greed" references in the final dungeon).

Despite Ceoptra referring to herself as "Karzoug's personal bodyguard", the highly suspect nature of the Anima Focus, and the portal leading to a huge platform over a sea of molten gold, the group remained conflicted as to whether or not this would lead to Karzoug himself. They debated resting first. They debated whether or not they'd get ambushed if they tried to rest in the dungeon. (To be fair, they were recently ambushed when they decided to rest in Shahlaria of all places). They finally seemed to settle on the idea that the portal probably didn't lead to Karzoug but maybe to a different floor of this same final dungeon. They stepped through the portal without resting or buffing first. Kyra also had a Greater Planar Ally prepped, and I was going to let them gain access to Sunlord Thalachos for the epic-factor had she attempted to summon something, just for this fight. (Had a stat sheet printed and everything!)

To be fair, they were in fact partially buffed. The Dragon Disciple had 4 minutes left on his final Dragon Form buff. They also had heroism, shield, barkskin on the entire group and enlarge person present on Ayruzi and Crosis. They had a pretty large stash of scrolls and wands to use fly, greater heroism, resist elements, stoneskin, haste and more, but didn't.

The group stepped through and were confronted by Karzoug, a rune giant, a blue dragon, and 2 storm giants. I also described the runewell and soul lens in great detail. but beyond a brief "huh that's weird" the group showed no curiosity nor made any knowledge checks to ascertain its purpose. I was disappointed, since they could have lost all their PCs but still stopped Karzoug this way.

We entered rounds. We use the plot twist cards, Himmelsdorf's player used his last card to -4 to Karzoug's initiative. He already rolled dismally so he was going dead last. The players used their round engaging the blue dragon, who went first and flew down to engage the group and breathe on them to relatively little effect. Kyra used her round channeling a heal to recover a little bit from the Chain Lightning from the Storm giants. The rune giant hung back, standing with Karzoug, his final line of defense against any jerks who try to engage him melee range. (I had hoped to have Karzoug enlarge person on him and make him colossal later in the fight for the awesome factor, but it never came to that.) Ayruzi flew up to fight storm giants.

Then Karzoug's turn went. Meteor swarm hurt. Quickened time stop hurt worse. Rolled a 4 for 5 rounds of mostly buffs. He saw that the players weren't flying, so one round he placed a Prismatic Wall down on the stairs on Seelah + Crosis, hopefully making a barrier between them and their ability to climb the steps. He then placed a wall of force to block foot access to the runewell (I was trying to hint about its importance to the group, went right over their heads.). Prismatic wall ended up being extremely harsh. When the time stop ended, Seelah failed her save to violet and was shifted back to the material plane. (I random rolled a color for them to save against, the way the other prismatic spells work, are they supposed to save against EVERY color if they touch the wall? If so that's insane, and the wall would have likely wiped both Seelah and Crosis out in 1 round.)

Crosis was Turned to Stone (he forgot about his dominant weapon, even the buff to saves - this was probably the harshest error the whole evening). Ayruzi died to Horrid Wilting. Karzoug rolled another 4 on his other quickened time stop. He buffed a bunch more. Laid down cloud kill on the platform the heroes were sitting on. Finger of Death proceeded to kill Kyra (whose player forgot she had a Scarab of Protection). Seelah came back through the portal using her own dominant weapon. She and Himmelsdorf were wasted out with misc other damage.

So the group was TPKed. Karzoug was close to re-entering the world, even more so after the group killed a bunch more of his tattooed minions. It was not feasible for another group of adventurers to get to Karzoug in time before his resurrection, even with the help of Brodert Quink and Shalelu (NPCs who were made aware of the method to get to Xin Shalast). So I posed the group with the option of retconning the whole attempt. Trying it again, more seriously this time. They shot that down as "cheating" and mentioned that it wouldn't be fair now that they have the general jist of his attack plan. That they should have tried to predict it in the first place (a barrage of powerful transmutation magic wasn't that hard to predict lol). So they chalked it up to a loss. They told me that they lost fair and square. I read them the failure epilogue from the appendix.

While all this sounds horribly depressing my players and I had a freaking blast. This is our first campaign, ever, and it has been incredible. The final dungeon lasted us 3 sessions, and this last session was incredibly fun. Chelian, the sword of greed, and the freeing of Ayruzi gave us great roleplaying opportunities. I stuck their original PCs who died in Book 2 (they were executed) in a prison cell in the Pinnacle of Avarice. It was an emotional reunion between them, and Kyra, the only party character to survive from the festival of Sandpoint all the way to the end. They had an epic battle with a Shemhazian demon. It's been a wild ride. I don't know if any Paizo people read this thread but, thanks for an incredible year of gaming. I think we're hooked on APs for life.

(Even though it ended up in horrible doom for all of Varisia. Sorry, Varisia!)

[Skeld]

^ So much awesome!

-Skeld

[Riding Bull]

Name of PC: Harsk
Race/Class/Level: Dwarf Cleric of Iomedae 14/Mythic 2
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors - The Iron Cages of Lust
Catalyst: "There is no negotiating with demons!"

Story:

After exhausting most of their resources while dancing through the Shimmering Veils with ease, the party had got over confident when they reached the Cathedral of Seduction. They sneaked past the daughters, cut trough the giants and caused an alarm which allowed Delvahine to be prepared. Instead of being initially hostile, she welcomed them at her Chambers, furious ofcourse for them to sneak up on her like that, but aware how easily they had cut trough her servants. She tried to have them state their business and be gone, but Harsk the Cleric of Iomedae wasn't going to allow a demon be left alive..

After few rounds of combat Harsk is fighting the daughters with his holy sword when he feels a burning touch at his back, he turns around to see one of the Shining Children reaching at him with its alien arms. Harsk tries to recover by channeling Iomedae's healing powers and raising his shield, but that recovery was short lived when the Shining Child went for another round of burning touches, scorching Harsk from inside.

[Something Wicked]

Name of PC: Melindral
Class/Level: Elf Druid (Wolf Shaman) 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings (Thistletop)
Catalyst: Bastard sword critical hit (and having 8 Con)
Story: Players created quite a ruckus in Thistletop, so much so that Orik, Lyrie, and Bruthazmus run up top just as Ripnugget is slain while trying to flee the throneroom. To my surprise (thanks to good use of a flaming sphere) Bruthazmus is isolated and goes down quickly, while the party struggles against Lyrie's mirror images and buffed AC (I use the Advanced [simple] template). Orik, meanwhile, is turtling against the group's barbarian and cleric in the northern hallway leading to the staircase. He soon withdraws, fleeing downstairs, and cutting across to the southern stairwell. By this time the fight has moved into the throne room's vestibule, where the fighter is struggling to keep Lyrie grappled as the cavalier, investigator, and druid repeatedly whiff. The druid has positioned herself right by the doorway next to the staircase so when Orik appears, she is the first thing he encounters. He power attacks with his bastard sword, confirms a crit, and sends the already-injured druid to meet Pharasma.

[Olmac]

Karolina Dean wrote:

So this is my final contribution to these obituary boards. Hope you guys have enjoyed our contributions to this thread. I have really enjoyed everyone else's stories and they helped me prep for my own games by knowing which encounters were potentially more deadly than others.

We'll be moving on to Wrath of the Righteous (voted in by my players). ...Wish me luck heh.

Name of PCs: Crosis, Himmelsdorf, Seelah, Kyra, Ayruzi (TPK)
Race/Class/Level: Respectively... Human CG Bloodrager 7/Dragon Disciple 10. Elf CN Arcane Archer 4/Ranger 12/Sorcerer 1. Human LG Paladin of Iomedae 17. Human NG Cleric of Sarenrae 17. NG Planetar, Angel.
Adventure: Spires of Xin Shalast
Catalyst: BBEG
Story This is going to be crazy long but I kinda wanted to immortalize it for our group.
** spoiler omitted **...

Thanks for the entertaining stories and advice you have freely offered up for this adventure path. Congrats on finishing it up, though sad that it ended in a TPK. My group recently finished Curse of the Crimson Throne (I was a player), and found the final battle a little anti-anticlimactic, but it seems your final battle here was epic. I am still languishing in the third book. One day, one day...

[Gark the Goblin]

Karolina, are you planning on keeping the same "game world" for WotR? That is - will PCs hear and know about the rise of Karzoug in the west?

[Karolina Dean]

@Gark

I'm planning on them happening concurrently. At some point during WoTR the new heroes will learn about Karzoug and will be given an opportunity to save Varisia. :) I haven't ironed out when will be an appropriate time, though, since mythic tiers are going to make these heroes more powerful more quickly. Karzoug, now fully reborn, will be given some mythic tiers to signify his increased power.

One of the major NPCs in our RoTR was Seelah, a paladin of Iomedae, who may make a small cameo appearance as a low lvl Paladin before embarking to Varisia. (When they met her she was already lvl 12).

[Akerlof]

Name of PC: Ena
Class/Level: Alchemist 7
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: (Staggered) Xanesha: Vital Striking, Power Attacking Longspear crit
Story: The whole party had a bad day at the old clocktower, but Ena had the worst. First she got a bell dropped on her, not really a big deal, just a little healing required. (The Warpriest got missed by the bell but fell through the hole, luckily for him feather fall was available.) Next, to build up suspense, I gave them a perception check and told them they saw something moving around trying to cut another bell down. That got the group moving, but Ena had Spider Climb, so she went straight up at a 30' move speed while everyone else was going around at 20' speed. That ended up with her flanked and taking a heavy pick crit. (I rolled different random weapons for the Faceless stalkers just to keep things interesting, ended up with a heavy pick, siangham and naginata, who would have guessed I'd be rolling 20s that day.)

After withdrawing back to the group, finishing off the faceless stalkers, and healing up, they head up to the top of the tower. Instead of a demon flying around, I had Xanesha major image up a succubus and use ventriloquism to chat up the party. Being the good adventurers they were, the party spread out and slowly moved up to surround the succubus, with Ena taking the lead chucking a bomb at her. The promptly failed the Will save to realize she was bombing the Succubus and the party collectively groaned as the succubus took off and started summoning a Babau. Ena got another bomb off, again failed her will save, but "made the succubus lose her spell." At this point the succubus sort of just hovered in one spot staring kind of vacantly for the next 3 rounds, but Xanesha got a solid sneak attack from invisibility in against the Warpriest. The fight doesn't go well in the first two rounds, everyone but the priest fails their save against the spear and take -2 to everything, making it hard to hit Xanesha (who was fully buffed with 7 mirror images up.)

The Warpriest went down, but the fighter shoved a potion down his throat to bring him back up, and he healed himself. Both the fighter and ranger got tripped when they drew AoOs moving in to attack her, and the ranger got overrun (but missed his AoO) when she needed some space.

Things were looking a little grim, with the Warpriest low and the ranger at 3 HP, when Ena got back into the game. She'd climbed 20' up the statue and chugged some buffs, and then hit Xanesha with a frost bomb, staggering her. With Xanesha staggered, the Warpriest healed himself up and all the images gone, things started looking up. Unfortunately, Ena was only a 5' step away from reach and all the others were right in Xanesha's face.

So, 5' step, Vital Strike, Power Attack: Natural 20. Confirmation roll: 19. Longspear: The only x3 crit simple weapon = 6d8+ 60 for a total of 86 damage. Ena is no more.

Next round, right before the Warpriest can heal the ranger, she uses the mask on him. He has a ton of bonuses to his saves, probably needs less than a 5, maybe only a 2... rolls a 1. Just the fighter and ranger, she successfully casts defensively and the fighter (almost fresh HP) fails his save verses Suggestion. Instead of basically ending the game right there, I tell him not to use his Step Up line of feats, and we go back and forth another round or two, both of us missing for the most part. But a lucky crit knocks Xanesha down to 10, so I take a withdraw action, get part of the way down the tower and go invisible to get away.

Now, Ena being the devout follower of Callistria she is, is out for revenge and I've got to come up with some sort of sleuthing adventure for the group to track her down.

[Dragonriderje]

Name of PC: Akaash the Dragonslayer
Class/Level: Magus 16
Adventure: Spires of Xin Shalast
Catalyst: Ghost bad touch
Story: Chapter 1 of Book 6 spoilers

Spoiler:

Going after Karivek Vekker's bones. Akaash took the frost wyrm breath to the face, then the party's fighter killed the frost wyrm, and Akaash took damage from that explosion. Then I rolled randomly to see where the ghost would rise out of the ground... and it was right behind poor Akaash who then failed his save against the corrupting touch, bringing him to below negative Con. He was brought back with Breath of Life by the cleric. He probably could've played dead, or tried to move away but brave Akaash attacked the ghost! Since the party fighter was shooting Karivek with a bow, the barbarian was using a reach weapon and the cleric had moved back after reviving Akaash, Karivek just shrugged his ghostly shoulders and full attacked Akaash and killed him again. The rest of the group took Karivek down, and teleported to Magnimar to rest and resurrect Akaash.

Zoom camera out to reveal Akaash's clay golem, Barduum, standing still and silent on the cliff, slowly being buried in a heavy snow storm, awaiting his master's return.

@Karolina Dean
That was an awesome read. I've been preparing for the final fight since we started this last book! Exciting! I'd recommend posting that summary in the GM Reference Thread for Spires of Xin Shalast too. Don't have to worry about spoilers in that thread, and I bet more people running this adventure will see it there, and I bet they'd be interested to hear how the battle went.

[Tangent101]

Name of NPC: Essanne
Class/Level: Air Elementalist Wizard 3/Rogue 4/Arcane Trickster 2/Swashbucker 3, 2 Mythic Tiers (Trickster)
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Attacking the Stone Giant General without any buffs up
Story: First, a bit of backstory. I inserted Mythic into the game (which has high stats anyway; I compensate by increasing every stat of every monster by +3, and adding levels. After the player running the Barbarian left the group, Essanne ended up in the Front Line. It wasn't that big a deal, as she also has the highest armor class in the party... and between Celestial Armor, Dex bonuses, Dodge, the ring of Force Shield, Combat Expertise, and other defensive magic can pull off an armor class of the upper 30s. She is rarely hit, and the group regularly drops AoE spells on her position because with Evade and a high Reflex save she isn't ever touched.

She even got first strike on the Giant General for a Sneak Attack... and a +3 to her armor class for Offensive Defense.

The General proceeded to roll to hit three times. The lowest roll was a 17. She was reduced to -37 hit points from full with the three strikes.

Fortunately, the cleric went after her and immediately cast Breath of Life on her, restoring her from road pizza to 2 hit points... and after that Essanne used Kip-Up to stand without causing an AoO and cast Mirror Image on herself because being pulped is not a fun thing. The giant went down without landing a single additional blow against her.

(This is the third time the NPC has been put below 0 hit points; one time she was 1 hp away from death's door in fact.)

[Tybid]

Name of PC(s): Arianne, Obidiah, Eydan
Class/Level: Fighter / Cavalier (9/5?), Universalist Wizard (14), Druid (14
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst: Portal Confusion / Highlady Athroxis / DM Tinkering
Story: The group had invaded the Halls of Wrath at the behest of Delvahine who had both informed them that Athroxis knew the secret of how to escape Runeforge and as a gift for her aid (She harbored a great hatred for Athroxis).

After completely destroying the Iron Archer (charges from the back of a griffon mount) the group made their way into the main hall and a large scale brawl with the warriors of wrath and the rage sinspawn. I turned all of the warriors into magi so the fight was a bit more hardcore than scripted. The damage they managed to do contributed eventually to the near TPK.

When magi started streaming in from one of the portals (called by one of the sinspawn who escaped) several party members chose to enter that portal and face the remaining magi. When the circle became unusable because of party members on the arrival circle.

Arianne rushed to the teleport on the other side of the hall to join them (thinking that the arrival chamber was connected) and triggered the final battle with Athroxis. (I had pre-buffed Athroxis and she was casting from a project image, the glabrezu (who had used mirror image, veil to look like Athroxis, and summoned two Vrocks), and the Vrocks had also precast mirror image and heroism.

The fight progresses from there with the rest of the group eventually joining to face her. One of the crucial changes I made to Athroxis was making her an Admixture Evoker. Having giant formed into a fire giant her daily fire shield made her immune to cold.

At one point I figured the fight was over when the druid charged as a dire tiger and grappled her.

Unfortunately he missed his next grapple maintenance. Athroxis broke free and cast prismatic spray which dropped several characters to near death and transported the cleric to a random wing and room of the dungeon (I ruled that was the effect of the plane shift ray).

The druid dropped a sleet storm to cover a retreat thinking that if she could not target them directly their escape would be easy.

Athroxis dropped an admixture (cold) fireball at her feet dropping Eydan and Arianne into negatives.

Next round, Athroxis (at 45 hp) dropped a cone of cold on the party and flash froze Arianne, Obidiah, and Eydan into death. The alchemist summarily bombed her twice and ended the fight.

[Skeld]

Name of PC: Gorm
Class/Level: Male Dwarf Fighter 13
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors (modified for 7 PCs and content)
Catalyst: Azaven + prismatic spray
Story: The heroes weren't expecting, and we're ill-prepared, to encounter the lich Azaven. Azaven knew they were coming thanks to his connection to his undead and blasted the heroes with prismatic spray at his earliest opportunity. One of the heroes took 80 points of acid damage, knocking him unconscious. Another was vanquished back to the Material plane. Gorm was poisoned and failed his Fortitude save versus death. Fortunately, he was raised shortly after the fight ended.

-Skeld

[Bellona]

A dwarf failed his Fortitude save against poison?!? I trust that he's suitably embarassed. :)

[Skeld]

Bellona wrote:

A dwarf failed his Fortitude save against poison?!? I trust that he's suitably embarassed. :)

Poison caused by a spell, no less. He was embarrassed. :D

-Skeld

[Misroi]

Dwarf fighter, no less. He deserves to have his name changed to Shornchin for that.

[Skeld]

Everyone rolls a 1 on a save at some point. :D

-Skeld

[Leedwashere]

Name of PC: Ullr
Class/Level: Dwarf Ranger 13
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst: overconfidence and a slight drop
Story: The group decided to check out the stairs before checking out the stone heads. Ullr ran right up the stairs, causing the elementals to pop out and smack him a bit (including a crit). Then, deciding to rely on his HP to save him, decided the best thing to do would be to jump off the stairs, since he was only 40' up. He provoked AOO's from both as he went, getting knocked unconscious by another crit as he went over the edge. All the attacks he survived, the rag-dolled 40' dealt the ignominious killing blow. Fortunately, he was within reach of a prepared Breath of Life.

[Gark the Goblin]

We ran through a bit of Burnt Offerings these last couple weeks because two people were missing from our regularly scheduled game.

Name of PC: Mug "Charlie" Eggreek
Class/Levels: Brawler (strangler) 4
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Bad rolls and buffed yeth hound
The gory details: Mug was a simple goblin hunter of the Thistletop tribe who arrived back on the island a few days after an adventurer attack had destroyed the remains of her tribe. She vowed revenge on the longshanks who had pushed her tribe out of their ancestral home, joining with a new team of adventurers commissioned to defeat those demon-worshipping jerks.

After easily defeating Lyrie, Bruthazmus, and a pair of yeth hounds, the party descended onto the third level to find the war-mongering aasimar who had put goblins on the front line. Unfortunately, because the previous fights had been so easy, I had decided to buff up Nualia and her yeth hound companion with an extra class level, each. The party faced an aasimar cleric 3/fighter 3 and a yeth hound rogue 1, and they ran into problems. Mug (who introduced herself as Charlie to the party) immediately went for Nualia, trying to grapple her and begin choking her to death. Meanwhile, the rest of the party slowly chopped down the yeth hound, and it slowly chopped down them.

Charlie, however, couldn't land a single hit on Nualia, and the priestess was dealing heavy damage to the little goblin. Eventually, the rogue was at 3 hp, Charlie was at 7, and the yeth hound was at 2. The yeth hound bayed as a last-ditch hope, panicking the swashbuckler and the group's NPC ally, Orik. Charlie and the rogue followed close on their heels, but not quite fast enough, and the yeth hound tore out Charlie's guts, knocking her unconscious. The rogue considered going back to revive her, but as they were nearly dead themselves they decided not to waste the distraction. The rogue fled along with the remainder of the party, and Nualia consumed the goblin's remaining life force to power her spells.

During the flight, Orik was also slain by the yeth hound, though he managed to do one more point of damage before being taken down. Rest in peace . . .

[elcaleeb]

Name of PC: Gronad
Class/Levels: Dwarf Barbarian 2 /Oracle 6
Adventure: Hook Mountain massacre
Catalyst: Full round attack from a hasted Lamia
Story: After healing up some from being knocked out by Mr Kreeg, Gronad moved forward to block the lamia from getting to his severely injured party. His 38 HP did not stand up to 2 hits and 3 crits, taking ~80 points of damage before a die was rolled. His sacrifice gave the party time to regroup and eek out a win though, barely.
He used 2 Hero points to cheat death.

[elcaleeb]

Name of PC: Elrohir
Class/Levels: : Half Elf Fighter 9
Adventure: : Hook Mountain massacre
Catalyst: : Full round attack from the terror from the deep
Story:

Spoiler:

Tried to valiantly hold off Black Magga while the rest of his party fled. Ended up grappled at -4 and dragged into Claybottom Lake.

Used 2 hero points 2 cheat death.

Spoiler:

Ole Pinkeye did not like the intrusion in his territory, and attacked Black Magga, who launched Elrohir into the air where he was picked up by a giant moth-like creature and taken to shore. He now bears the mark of a butterfly on his hand

[Demonknight]

So since the last count was a while ago.... (like more than 5 years... ) i took the liberty to do the math and this is the count so far:

1st adventure (Burnt Offerings): 367 (+17 animal companion/NPC)
2nd adventure (Skinsaw Murders): 194 (+9 animal companion/NPC)
3rd adventure (Hook Mt): 161 (+20 animal companion/NPC)
4th adventure(FotSG): 135 (+4 animal companion/NPC)
5th adventure (Sins): 76 (+3 animal companion/NPC)
6th adventure (SoX-S): 73 (+4 animal companion/NPC)
Side Quests: 20

Totals: 1006 (+57 animal companion/NPC)

Hurray for the 1000 PC dead, it was a cold one....

[Leedwashere]

Name of PC: O'Neill
Class/Level: Human Paladin of Torag 14
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors
Catalyst: A Cornered Lich
Story:

The group started going through the ravenous crypts, but decided to rest partway through after destroying the negative energy portal, Xyoddin and the golem. They decided to rest in the wing they were in the process of clearing out. Azaven let them get comfortable for three hours before getting the drop on them (they further neglected to set watch), though his plans went awry when the Dwarf Ranger used an instant enemy spell, rapid shot, manyshot and clustered shots. He retreated after telling them to GTFO of his wing. The group instead decided to find him and end him. When they burst into his laboratory through the secret door, he had just enough time to get off a Prismatic Spray before the Summoner's Eidolon pounced. Two characters took acid damage, one became insane and the Paladin got the green ray. After confirming the class features granted immunity to disease, not poison, I was still fairly confident that a Paladin would be just fine. This assurance was followed by a nat 1 on the save. 'Twas not the end for O'Neill, though. The party has been getting their money's worth out of the NPC cleric they hired to come with them.

[Demonknight]

One raise dead is always handy!

[TheCleanHippie]

Name of PC: Orik Vancaskerkin (cohort)
Class/Level: Goblin Fighter 9 Ranger 1
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: A party overwhelmed by enemies, lamias
Story:

As the group was making their way towards the library level they happened upon the hallway with the two trolls. Having not yet encountered the two lamias up the hall they heard the commotion and decided to come and join the fun. To make matters worse, the round they finished dispatching the trolls Lokansir showed up for some revenge. All told they ended up fleeing with dimension door but not before poor Orik was felled by the lamias who had been concentrating their blows on the little fighter. Ayla, the party cleric hit him with Breath of Life though and all was ok.

Name of PC: Iza Olely (cohort)
Class/Level: Human Warpriestess of Pharasma 10
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Bad timing, a collapsed ceiling, and dragon's fire
Story:

After escaping the previous debacle the party rested until nightfall so they could recuperate before they assaulted again. When they returned they found the hallway guarded by the one remaining lamia and Lokansir. In the first round of the battle that broke out they brought ole Lokey practically to his knees through focusing fire, just low enough that he would panic and begin stomping and smashing around using his earthquake ability. This caused huge chunks of stone to fall from the ceiling of the cave and pin most of the party. In the rounds following this the dragons from the next room made their appearance and began cursing and breathing fire on the rubble and the pinned party underneath. Unfortunately for Iza, trapped in the rubble, this would cause her enough damage to bring her death.

In our group in order to give death more weight we have outlawed the use of low level rez spells such as Raise Dead and Reincarnation in lieu of Hero Points. Cohorts do not gain HP but I've ruled a character can use their own reserve on their cohort or animal companion (or what-have-you) if they so choose. Iza's mistress, Ayla, felt a surge of wild divine force expel from both herself and another character to shield Iza from death (at the cost of 2 HP).

Including this as a death because HP aren't exactly core material and without them this would have resulted in a death.

[Demonknight]

So far mine players have only used Hero Points for the mundane stuff, like a really good +8 bonus on the roll (and praying for not ocurring a critical miss..), being on the 3rd level, two of them (they are 4), have 2 (reserved for that day where Death says HELLO! (bonus points for noticing something here...).

[Manwolf]

Name of PC: Torzelm
Class/Level: Male Human Fighter 6
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Torzelm + Suicide Compulsion Haunt
Story: The heroes had not yet learned to combat the haunts, so when brave Torzelm entered the room, did not spot the dagger suddenly appear, and failed his Will save, the other party members were unable to disarm him before he struck himself down, with a critical. Failed his Fort save and died. It's tough being a fighter.

[Demonknight]

I´m very curious how my party is going to resolve the haunts, but they have yet to deal with Thistletop (they are smack down in the fight with Ripnugget, his Commandos and the warchanter).

[Misroi]

Manwolf: Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the haunt state that if someone attempts to prevent the person with the suicide compulsion from killing themselves, they attack that person and automatically crits? That's really the thing that makes it fair, IMO.

Check it out.

[Demonknight]

True, if the others tried to stop him...

[Bellona]

Two deaths to report from my second RotR group. They occurred in relatively quick succession.

Name of PC: Halatir (played by E)
Race/Class/Levels: male elf Inquisitor 2/Fighter 3
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Rogors Craesby at the Hambley Farm
Story: The ghast paralysed Halatir, then coup-de-grace'd him. (The fight was not going well for the ghouls, and Craesby knew that his paralysis would only last a few rounds.)

E nobly rolled with the punch, and willingly took on the NPC warpriest who was accompanying the party that day. (Normally there are five players, but one couple could not make this particular session, hence the temporary NPC addition.)

Name of (N)PC: Arslan of Sarenrae (played by E after Halatir died)
Race/Class/Levels: male human (Garundi) Warpriest 5
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: a scarecrow ghoul at the Hambley Farm
Story: After dealing with the scarecrow ghouls on their route to the farm buildings, plus the ones in the buildings and the near-by ghoul reinforcements (during which fight Halatir died - see above), the party went back out to the fields in order to retrieve the one living survivor (the first survivor had been perforated with arrows before the party realised that there were also living humans on the scarecrow posts). As the inquisitor was already dead and no one else has a really good Perception skill, the remaining ghouls got the jump on the party. (Ghouls are stealthy!) Two rounds later, the warpriest was paralysed, and a hungry ghoul coup-de-grace’d him.

At which point, laughing, E said “This one broke too - send a new one!”

[Demonknight]

A good sense of humor is essential ;)

[Olmac]

Name of PC: Karn Stonehammer
Class/Level: Cleric (Sarenrae)/9th
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Black Magga
Story: After saving the school kids from the nightbelly boa the party split up. Some taking the kids and teacher to “dry” land, the others headed over to help with the church. Things started to spiral out of control then. The black magga attacked by slamming into a wall of the church. Karn headed out the front door to flank it. Magga made a perception check and spotted the dwarf coming out the door and moved to attack. Two rounds of combat and a critical hit from the magga sent poor Karn sinking to the bottom of the river. The party got reunited and drove off Black Magga. Karn’s body was recovered and now the party has to figure out how to get him raised.

[Bellona]

Demonknight wrote:

A good sense of humor is essential ;)

So true! :)

[Demonknight]

And so far not a single death on the party i´m Gming. Some close calls, but they managed to clean the top level of Thistletop and the mighty dangerous gobling rope bridge ;)
And they are at 4th level, the xp progression is a little buggy on the adventure, the final of the first chapter and the beggining of the second contradict each other....

[elcaleeb]

Name of PC: Gronad
Class/Levels: Dwarf Barbarian 2 /Oracle 7
Adventure: Hook Mountain massacre
Catalyst: lost his head
Story: Skullripper was having a good time chomping on the summoners pet, until the summoner decided to dismiss him. Next closest target was Gronad. The party tried to beat the cretaure into submission, but were unable to do so before Gronad was choked out.
Gronad used his last 2 hero points to cheat death, as something bolstered his unconcious body, preventing decapitation.

[HellFire442]

Ouch Bellona! You were rough with your ghouls!

I just ran my party through there and decided that I would avoid obituaries. In the brawl at the farmhouse I had 2/5 PCs paralyzed at once. The cleric by Rogers and the Wizard by an extra ghoul. Other people were around so I had Rogers an autohitting full attacks instead of AoO provoking coupe de grace. His decision was bolstered by having single digit HP though.

[Bellona]

The party were noisy in trying to sneak up on the farmhouse, then split themselves up to go around it. They found Rogors in the farm yard (he had just exited the front door of the farmhouse and was calling for back-up from the barn), and then the barn ghouls came charging out. The ghouls also split themselves into two groups (one for each pair of characters). By the time Halatir met his doom, over half the ghouls were destroyed, so Rogors and his ghouls were getting desperate - hence the extreme bloodiness.

As for the second death ... well, maybe the ghoul should just have dragged the paralysed Arslan into the rows of "winter corn" in order to chow down on him. But I didn't think of that lovely piece of horror in time, unfortunately.

[HellFire442]

I was very dissapointed that I didn't get a chance to drag PCs off into the corn. I was close, but each time it would have resulted in the ghoul dying from AoO to do it..

Maybe I am too soft, but I am not a fan (nor my party) of the ghoul "fail 1 save/ dead next turn" ability. I have high hopes for my next set of ghasts drowning PCs though :) Hopefully, I'll get an Obit soon.

[Turin the Mad]

HellFire442 wrote:

I was very dissapointed that I didn't get a chance to drag PCs off into the corn. I was close, but each time it would have resulted in the ghoul dying from AoO to do it..

Maybe I am too soft, but I am not a fan (nor my party) of the ghoul "fail 1 save/ dead next turn" ability. I have high hopes for my next set of ghasts drowning PCs though :) Hopefully, I'll get an Obit soon.

We're rooting for ya! ;)

[NobodysHome]

While I don't like to derail obit threads, I love ghouls precisely because they're really deadly undead for low-level PCs, yet they're intelligent and can choose whether or not to coup de grace paralyzed opponents. Remember, ghouls use humans for two purposes: Food and reinforcements. In other words, you as the GM get to choose what they do, based on the kind of game your players are expecting. For example:

In Rise of the Runelords, their leaders' orders vis a vis the PCs is never made 100% clear, so you have an absolutely open slate.

In Serpent's Skull (and I'll openly say the fact that there are ghouls is not a significant spoiler, since I think EVERY AP has ghouls somewhere), it specifically says the ghoul leader is looking to "recruit" the PCs. So when my kids' group faced the ghouls and a couple of PCs got paralyzed, I had the ghouls continue to "gently" bite the PCs to enture they got Ghoul Fever. It made for an epic series of days as they wondered whether they were going to lose two of their own to the disease.

In short, ghouls are almost always a, "Play 'em as you see fit," GM'ing all. Hardball = Coup de Grace. Softball = Bite 'em some more to give 'em Ghoul Fever. Both ways have their charms, in my eyes...

[Turin the Mad]

NobodysHome wrote:

While I don't like to derail obit threads, I love ghouls precisely because they're really deadly undead for low-level PCs, yet they're intelligent and can choose whether or not to coup de grace paralyzed opponents. Remember, ghouls use humans for two purposes: Food and reinforcements. In other words, you as the GM get to choose what they do, based on the kind of game your players are expecting. For example:

In Rise of the Runelords, their leaders' orders vis a vis the PCs is never made 100% clear, so you have an absolutely open slate.

In Serpent's Skull (and I'll openly say the fact that there are ghouls is not a significant spoiler, since I think EVERY AP has ghouls somewhere), it specifically says the ghoul leader is looking to "recruit" the PCs. So when my kids' group faced the ghouls and a couple of PCs got paralyzed, I had the ghouls continue to "gently" bite the PCs to enture they got Ghoul Fever. It made for an epic series of days as they wondered whether they were going to lose two of their own to the disease.

In short, ghouls are almost always a, "Play 'em as you see fit," GM'ing all. Hardball = Coup de Grace. Softball = Bite 'em some more to give 'em Ghoul Fever. Both ways have their charms, in my eyes...

Ghouls doing horrible things have been a mainstay since 'the early days', when a GM is describing the horrid fate that befell a group's "sneaky type" getting paralyzed and [mysterious fate revealed]. Ghouls are awesome. I'm glad that you portrayed that same awesomesauce to your group of kids. :)

[Crivens]

Name of PC: Oak
Class/Level: Half Orc Barbarian (Armored Hulk) 8
Adventure: The Hook Mountain Massacre, Part 2: Retaking Rannick
Story: Hasted Lucrecia got crit happy(1d4+18 is pretty impressive for hitting someone with a dagger!).
Kaven helped with the flanking.

[Tybid]

Name of PC: Isaac, Obidiah, Arianne, Tom Tom
Class/Level: Human Paladin (Warrior of the Holy Light) 17, Human Wizard 17, Human Fighter 11 / Cavalier 6 (?), Halfling Cleric 7 / Spherewalker 10
Adventure: The Spires of Xin Shalast: Pinnacle of Avarice

Catalyst:

Storm Giants... mostly Storm Giants

Fight Components
3 Advanced Storm Giants (2 Killed)
6 Advanced Cloud Giants (5 Killed)
2 Rune Giants
1 16th Level Transmuter
1 18th Level Fighter (Invincible Mythic Template) (Captured)
2 Projected Images of Karzoug
2 Hungerers (Killed)
4 Lamia Clerics
1 Summoned Osyluth
1 Summoned Babau (Killed)
1 Summoned Erinyes (Killed)

1 17th Level Wizard (Killed)
1 17th Level Fighter/Cavalier
1 17th Level Paladin (Killed)
1 17th Level Cleric/Spherewalker
1 17th Level Alchemist
1 Bound Brijidine Azata (Retrograded with opposite of Advanced Temp)

The players ascended the entrance ramp to the Pinnacle and choosing to eschew stealth (as usual) they quickly found themselves in a brawl with my slightly modified* wardens of wind. Seeing no reason why there shouldn't be an alarm system I had one of the giants ring a nearby gong which alerted all enemies on the level.

Running the map through Roll 20 I moved each group with each passing round, casting buffs as I did so and waiting five rounds for the Champion and her Storm Giants (once again modified*) and the Rune Giant (yes again*) in X4 to advance on the combat.

Things snow balled quickly even involving Karzoug getting into the brawl with one of his images. The wizard even had a humorous side effort going to keep Karzoug from using the side room to get a better vantage on the party for AOE's using his invisible monkey familiar.

Unfortunately, even my card system wasn't enough to save the vast majority of the party. After disarming Viorian and killing most of Khalib's summons Tom Tom was the first to be forced to use his cards. Khalib used his quickened maximized magic missile to force the halfling to use his cards or die.

Next, Arianne was hit with an 80-90 point crit from a storm giant forcing her to use her cards as well.

Isaac was then hit by ANOTHER storm giant crit plus two other heavy slashes that totaled 175 points of damage. Having no cards the paladin was killed.

Seeing the oncoming ruin of the party Obidiah rushed up to sacrifice himself to get the most vengeance that he could muster. The wizard flew up to Isaac and cast PHANTASMAL REVENGE on him. I did not expect the storm giant to fail both saves but unfortunately he first failed the will save and when he passed fortitude Doyle (the party alchemist) used another harrow card to force me to reroll his fort... which he failed killing the 152 hp storm giant in one fell swoop.

Obidiah then turned on Viorian (who I had made mythic by association with Chellan*), who the group had sussed was not in her right wits and had been subsequently been doing non lethal until they realized the gravity of the situation, and in a last ditch effort hit her with a disintegrate spell. The fighter passed her save but the resulting damage still dropped her below the threshold of her nonlethal dropping her into unconsciousness.

A lamia priestess then took the opportunity to rush in and drive a falchion into Obidiah's back, killing the wizard for perhaps the fourth or fifth time in the course of the adventure.

Seeing the writing on the wall Doyle used an extract of etherealness or shadow walk (i forget) and booked away. Tom Tom, being harried by one of the lamia rushed in and dim doored Viorian and Obidiah and Isaac's corpse as far as he could muster.

Arianne made bid to flee but a rune giant chopped her animal companion (which would have killed her had I not given her one point of lee-way on a ride check to ignore the attack) so the fighter flew at maximum speed down the ramp after her comrades.

The party's summoned Brijidine Azata covered their retreat before banishing herself in the face of a number of violent foes. The Pinnacle having suffered considerable losses gave some chase but returned to bolster defenses when Obidiah was resurrected and quickly scribed a scroll of gate (using his last vial of elerium (I think that's what the stuff is called)) and returned them to his slow time demiplane to recover.

When they return they will have the gained benefit of Viorian (non-mythic) as an added companion.

*These things are likely the true catalyst in the party's sound beating

[elcaleeb]

Name of PC: Skippy
Class/Levels: Magus 10
Adventure: Hook Mountain massacre
Catalyst: Decided to be a front line fighter.
Story:
Skippy decided he was going to go front line against the ogres. It was not going too bad, untill he decided to cast a fireball while standing next to an ogre, and refused to cast defensively. One ogre hook crit later, dead magus.

Used 2 hero points to cheat death.

[Palinurus]

No deaths so far in the party I'm GMing either. Two or three close calls. One in the Fortress of the Stone Giants. The Halfling rogue was on the wrong end of a x4 crit from Galenmir. He was saved by spending 2 hero points (refunded when we realised he could activate his Hood of the Fortunate Solidier). In Sins of the Saviours The Paladin of Sarenrae was dropped tanking against Arkryst and saved by a Heroes Defiance spell.

[Crivens]

Name of PC: Bethany
Class/Level: Tiefling Witch 9
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre - Part 4: The Haunted Heart
Catalyst: A Bogeyman additional "random" encounter.
Story:
Coming from Bitter Hollow on their war to the Whitewillow for the first time the party encounters a band of loud jovial Gnomes who explain that they are singing to keep the bogeyman at bay. They presume he must have been attracted to the sorrow that has overtaken the Whitewillows recently.

Not being jovial enough for the GM's liking the party attracts the attention of an invisible Bogeyman (Bestiary 3, Pg 42). He starts whispering in Bethany's ear trying to convince her to capsize the boat, drown the party, kill the annoying Pixie and generally hangs around for an extended time basking in her fear.

With everything else that is going on in the corrupted marsh the party don't take Bethany's warnings about what is happening very seriously (The Wis 7 Paladin preaches that an open mind is like a fortress with it's gates left wide open and suggests that she ignore everything that is happening in the marsh. Eventually, Oak (Half Orc Barbarian - see previous obituaries) makes his perception check and is convinced there is actually something next to the witch whispering in her ear.

The party decide to take the Gnome troupes advice and start singing, which sends the Bogeyman into a rage. A surprise round crit, a high initiative roll and two claw hits later (116 damage) means the young witch falls.

She wasn't dead for very long though, Sigrune (Aasimar Paladin/Oracle) used 10 charges of lay on hands and the Ultimate Mercy Feat to bring her back to life instantly.

The Bogeyman soon died to a cold iron greatsword with a raging barbarian on the other end of it.

Currently every PC has at least one negative level. Next session they are likely to meet the Black Maga.

[HellFire442]

Name of PC Garet "Egorian" Thrune
Class/Level Human Paladin 6
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders: Foxglove manor
Catalyst: Iesha Foxglove's Revenant
Honorable Mention: Sorez Kalin (Human Cleric 6)

Story:

Two important bits of information. The party consists of Davosk the halforc wizard, Serena the elven rogue/ranger/shadowdancer, Mosali the human bard, Elron the human monk of the lotus, Egorian the human paladin and Sorez the human cleric.

We play with hero points, but only 1 per character. They are a super hero point of sorts, within reason.

My 6 person party has been working through the Foxglove manor for the last two sessions. Everyone was getting very wary and nervous about the haunts. Egorian was leading the way as he had discovered that Sarenrae protected him from their ill effects. This still did not prevent the monk from nearly leaping from a window to his death! (Tied the reflex save to not fall 300 feet to the sharp rocks below.)

The party followed the sounds of a sobbing woman into the attic whereupon they discovered Iesha. Several botched knowledge checks later they determined that she had a strong evil aura (the strongest the paladin had seen to date.), was a revenant, and knew that Aldern was her murderer and she wanted him dead. Unfortunately, they didn't know much about revenants... other than that they were bad and most likely powerful.

The party retreated to make a plan of action. Several plans were put forth. Plan 1 was to stay out of her way and let her seek Aldern and follow her there. Hopefully they kill each other.. (Not a bad plan!) Plan 2 was to leave her alone as she seemed unable to move away from the mirror in the room. Plan 3 was to kill her and cleanse the undead. Plan 4 was my favorite plan. She was murdered by her scarf (which Sorez the cleric wore around his neck) so perhaps she had a weakness to it and if the party tried to strangle her with it they would easily be able to kill her.

I really wish I could write about how the party attempted to kill the revenant with an object of its obession... sadly they chose plan 3b. The gathered around her with half the party in the room and the rest gathered in the hallway outside and Egorian the paladin moved the mirror.

With a shriek (that everyone passed) Iesha's revenant stood up and turned looking for Aldern.... and saw her scarf wrapped around the neck of Sorez who was standing a mere 10 feet from her. She flew into a rage and won initiative granting her a full attack. Fortunately for Sorez, I forgot her extra attack from haste. He took enough damage to put him with 3 health remaining and locked into a grapple with the revenant. It looked bad. The party managed to put 93 damage into her, leaving her with only 15 health remaining. It wasn't enough and her turn was about to come up.

Davosk the wizard and Egorian the Paladin both burned a hero point to attack out of turn and give a last ditch effort to finish her off. They fell just short as her health dwindled, but could not finish her. Sorez realized that he was about to die and the scarf seemed to be the reason. He burned a hero point to toss it to Egorian.

Iesha watch the scarf fly over her head and land in the paladins hand behind her. With a cry of rage she turned and full attacked the paladin dealing 61 damage - enough to kill him. Luckily, mosali was standing nearby and burned a hero point to draw her wand of cure light wounds and heal Egorian as the blows landed. The 5 health gained was enough to prevent his death. Serena immediately dispatched Iesha with a flanking sneak attack and the party breathed a sigh of relief.

By all rights, either Sorez or Egorian should have died. GM Mistakes and 4/6 hero points saved the day.

[Bellona]

How long until she returns? And does the party know that this will happen? :)

[HellFire442]

Technically they do not come back anymore unless you GM house rules it.

I told the players specifically "and cannot rest until it has found its vengeance" in my description of the revenant. We had to stop right as they finished her so we will see what they do to the body. If they try and burn it or cleanse it then it may take longer... otherwise I think I am planning to have her return to undeath every midnight until her body is either fully destroyed, spirit laid to rest somehow, or her murderer killed. I really want to setup revenants as juggernauts of destruction that you do NOT want to attract the wrath of. I think that 2 rounds of wrangling with her was enough to convince the party of that.

I don't think my party plans to try and rest inside the house.. but they have tried sillier things before. It would not bode well for them if they did.

EDIT: OH NO! 1000th post and its not an Obit!! You tricked me! :(