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There have been some very close moments so far, but this was my first actual PC kill.
Name of PC: "Her Corpulence" Vraya the Sanguine
Class/Level: Nagaji Sorcerer 5
Adventure: Misgivings
Catalyst: Foxglove Manor
Story: The party had made their way up to the second floor where, upon entering Traver Foxglove's bedroom, the first party member inside made his saving throw. However, as soon as they had, Vraya entered the bedroom and failed her saves. Before anyone could react, Vraya made her way to the desk and grabbed the jagged wood. Where they proceeded to jab themself in the neck, resulting in their death.
My first true death! I feel like a full-grown GM now.
PC: Greccen
Class: Dwarf Fighter 6
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Walking into an ambush
Story: After the party's scrape with death at the hands of Aldern, they made their way to Magnimar, fought their way past the faceless stalkers at the Townhouse, and made their way (after a few day's delay) to the Sawmill. Once there, they spent some time trying to get in (knocking on the doors, mainly), then left and returned at night. After several rounds of attempting to break down the door to the lowest level, they finally succeeded, having managed to attract the attention of the entire sawmill. After a short conversation with the workers in the lower level, they left right before they were about to be attacked and tried to break into the main double doors. Surprisingly, they opened easily, opened from the interior by a pair of sawmill workers.
After failing their perception checks to notice anything suspicious, they entered the room, only to have the doors slammed shut and locked behind them, and beset by all of the cultists simultaneously. Following an incredible series of rolls, a cultist managed to get off a sneak attack crit, rolling nearly max damage, and a few more rolls, and Greccen was on the floor, and bled out a few fairly anticlimactic rounds later. His player decided to let the death stand, and Greccen was set afloat on the river and set on fire (which is what my players decided was an appropriate burial).
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A toast to you, Daedalus, and to Greccen. Here's hoping nobody dies to Ms. X. Anyway, here's a two-fer.
PC: Koji Yamaoka
Details: Kitsune life Oracle 16
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast
Place of Death: The Yetis' Home
Famous Last Words: "It's okay, I still have 10 HP!"
Gory Details:
They'd heard that the yeti's boss, let's call him Vooroog, had a Sihedron Ring he'd gotten from one of the Claimer's higher-ups, so they asked if they could borrow it. The yetis were nice enough, but Vooroog immediately accussed them of being sent by the Claimer to kill him, and rolled initiative. Vooroog told them to "aim for that one," and Koji tried to hit the disguised Khalib with a Greater Dispel, but got grabbed, unwillingly released, then full-attacked until he announced his epitaph. Then a yeti hit him for 1d8+10, and Vooroog, coward that he was, decided to double-tap with a single Magic Missile. Fortunately, he was under orders to keep his better spells in reserve, and dropped his Sihedron Ring to teleport away as soon as the physically toughest PC was about to close with him. The yetis, due to their chronic lack of fealty to the Claimer, had outlived their usefulness.
PC: Nordramel Embermaw
Details: Kobold Humility Illusionist 3/U-Rogue 3/Arcane Trickster 10
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast
Place of Death: The Heptaric Locus
Cause of Death: Gamigin, reworked into an Advanced Roguish gelugon with the Assassinate slayer talent
Gory Details:
Shortly after they first met the skulks (who now have different hats), they were introduced to Gamil, a skulk who'd come from an enclave somewhere around the Tangle. He offered to lead them to a Sihedron Ring guarded by scarlet walkers, avoiding most of them. Having ran out of Invisibility but still the sneakiest of them, Nordramel snuck forward, seemingly unseen by the Walkers, then Gamil removed his Hat and stabbed Nordramel so hard that his head fell clean off. He then held off his Walkers, allowed them to resurrect their ally and take his Sihedron Ring, also offering information on Karzoug if they gave him valuable things. They refused.
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And I'm back! Xanesha was sadly not as deadly as I had kind of hoped, but that doesn't mean the party went unscathed!
PC:'MJ'
Class: Human Bard 7
Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Being in melee range while buffing.
Story: So, after our valiant heroes set their recently-deceased comrade ablaze on the river, they backtracked to the temple of Erastil where they had previously gone for healing. However, when they found it closed (it was approximately 1 AM at this point), they decided to camp out on the street outside, bloody, half-dead, and with only the ranger's cheetah companion keeping watch.
They were rudely awoken by town guards, who took them in for vagrancy, locking them in a cell for the better part of the day while they decided what to do with them. Eventually, they released them, accompanied by two escorts (a phoenix sorcerer, our replacement PC, and a PC whose player missed a few sessions), with orders to track down the leader of the cult.
After a hard-fought battle with the scarecrow, ending with the golem taking off for the sea, and a harrowing climb up the stairs (the bell hit all four PCs, nearly killing half of them), they dispatched the faceless stalkers with ease, but still gave Xanesha plenty of time to buff.
They entered the loft, and after many failed will saves to notice the nature of Xanesha's illusions, wasted their round attacking air, and their first sight of Xanesha was when she had her spear thoroughly impaled in the sorcerer's chest (rolled a crit, really good damage, but I forgot to add in sneak attack and power attack), leaving their new party member at exactly 1 HP as we broke for the week.
When we returned, we had recruited a pair of victims/HP sponges one-off allies, a telekineticist and a bard (MJ). When it was Xanesha's turn, she left the sorcerer bleeding out (I rolled insanely bad on damage), then struck at the barbarian, with most attacks missing. After a very rough turn for X, with MJ the Bard's buffs proving incredibly potent, she struck back with a vengeance, downing the ranger's cheetah with a single blow, and taking MJ from full to dead over the course of two attacks. Her luck didn't hold out from there, as the (still hasted) party managed to slowly chip away at her health. She put up a good fight, too. Her attacks brought our barbarian to negative health, but stayed raging as a result of being half-orc. He dealt one final blow, then collapsed (bringing him to -17/19 HP), but Xanesha decided to cut her losses and fled the tower with exactly 1 HP remaining.
They managed to revive the sorcerer and barbarian before either died, but there was nothing that could be done for MJ or the ranger's companion. And, with both the Scarecrow and Xanesha still out there, it's almost certain they haven't seen the last of them.
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PC: Koji Yamaoka
Details: Kitsune Life Oracle 17
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast
Catalyst: Lack of co-ordination, planning, forethought, Fort saves.
The Gory Details: (Petrified, but apparently this counts!)
After finally entering the Pinnacle of Avarice, Karzoug Hologram #1 told them to go away; they made fun of him (and I think presumed he'd already completed his Rise); he locked them out. They forgot about their Chime of Opening, refused to take 20, didn't really do any preparatory buffs, and just D-Doored to the other side. Their second encounter (after Hologram #1 & 2, and the intro giants) was with Khalib behind two more cloud giants. Koji's sister & Leadership cohort took an Awesome Blow crit and her corpse got knocked back a good 15', so Koji ran up to give her a Breath of Life.
This was the opportunity Khalib wanted. He gave Koji Flesh to Stone, he failed his save, and the two giants went to close in on him. His allies were able to pick him up and immediately run away with him, leading to-
PC: Dreg Embermaw
Details: Kobold Sandman Bard 17
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast
Catalyst: Getting left behind by his allies.
His Epitaph: "Don't worry guys, I can Break Enchantment!"
The Gory Details: Dreg decided to cover his friends' escape: he told a summoned lillend to get Koji's statue self to safety (provoking AoOs which booted her back to Elysium), then attempted a Song of Discord on Khalib and the two giants. The only giant who failed the save was closer to Dreg than they other giant.
Then his friends ran off with Koji, leaving Dreg by himself when the next round happened. Despite his Blur spell, which he did have the forethought to use on himself before this fight, the giants managed to hit him, followed by Khalib's Quickened Magic Missile/Maximized Magic Missile, downing him while his allies continued to flee.
He's going to get tossed into one of the anti-magic cells just as Khalib finishes a Temporary Resurrection on him.
The players are disheartened, but want to see this out to the end, and even want to follow into Shattered Star.
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PCs:
Koji Yamaoka, kitsune Life Oracle 17
->Akiko Yamaoka, kitsune Vigilante 15 (Leadership cohort)
Nordramel Embermaw, kobold Pride Illusionist 4/U-Rogue 3/Arcane Trickster 10
Dreg Embermaw, kobold Sandman Bard 17
Atropos, (formerly catfolk, now reincarnated as aasimar wyvaran) Fighter 6/Huntmaster Cavalier 11
Location: The Pinnacle of Avarice (they hadn't found the Leng Device)
TPK, Bad End achieved
The party, all invisible with only one person able to See Invisible, scattered in an open area. They were fighting three Advanced cloud giants and one rune giant. With nobody else to attack, multiple giants surrounded Atropos and killed him faster than Koji could heal him. Akiko was under attack from an elemental summoned by the currently-hiding Khalib.
I also crit like three times in as many rounds >_<
Chellan was on its way (I wasn't going to announce Chellan's arrival until a round after the rune giant fell, but he didn't fall), the party had gotten itself surrounded, they'd forgotten some of their preparation, and were too spread out to attempt to D-Door to safety.
So they surrendered.
Khalib, Chellan, Ceoptera, and the rune giant marched them all up to the Eye of Avarice, where they reverently awaited the rise of the Claimer.
A denizen of Leng burst in, arms flailing and head shaking, but nobody would be dissuaded.
Karzoug stepped upon the Soul Lens.
The Eye of Avarice activated.
With a piggy-back from it, the Leng Device activated.
The Leng Device broke.
Then Mhar arose in a furious conflagration, instantly destroying the Pinnacle of Avarice, with a resulting pyroclasic flow that destroyed most of Xin-Shalast. The Ancient One then pulled itself up on legs of living ruby, and stumbled its way down the mountainside.
At least Karzoug is dead, but the rest of Varisia has to contend with the Rise of Mhar.
I'm still honoured that all the players want to go through Shattered Star, and they're already planning characters they'll enjoy more. I'm certain they'll do a lot less dying there.
Atropos: 2. Crushed by Barl/Mhar.
Dreg: 3. Disintegrated by Mokmurian/barrage of Magic Missiles by Khalib/Mhar.
Koji: 4. Azaven gave him the Finger/Killed by yetis & Khalib-as-yeti/Petrified by Khalib/Mhar.
Nordramel: 4. Best Death Ever vs. Xanesha/Strangled to death by a mummy/Assassinated by Gamigin/Mhar.
Akiko: 3. Vraxeris' simulacra/giants in the Pinnacle/Mhar.
PC: Mladris
Class: Elven Hydrokineticist (psychokineticist) 8
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Pushing on too long
Story: After arriving in Turtleback Ferry en route to investigate Fort Rannick, our heroes pressed onward (after a brief scare wherein they thought the entire town were members of the Skinsaw Cult due to a recurring tattoo), only to be drawn into the woods by the sounds of a hunting party pursuing a wounded cat. After utterly destroying Rukus' hounds, the ogrekin made a despondent escape back to his farmhouse, with the party following along behind him. After a brief run-in with another ogrekin in the woods outside the Graul Farmhouse, the party ventured into the barn and managed to absolutely slaughter all the foes therein, rescuing the Black Arrows after a brief, but still quite damaging, fight with the ogre spider, leaving several party members with Strength damage, including the barbarian.
Making their way inside (and failing many, many saves to poison), most of the party had accumulated a lot of strength damage by the time they fought Mammy, who managed to escape after a short battle. Heedless of the sorcerer's worries about nearly being out of spells, and the impressive amount of Str and Dex damage held by the barbarian, they decided to press on, exploring the dining room and kitchen (and triggering the traps therein), before descending into the basement.
Hucker Graul started off his battle ferociously, nearly one-shotting the Ranger with a lucky crit on the first round of combat, then engaging with the barbarian for a short while before making a tactical retreat into the Tendriculous' room. Once the Ranger was back on his feet, the party pursued their foe into the next room, but stayed out in the corridor instead of going fully inside (with the exception of the Barbarian). After a couple rounds back and forth, the Barbarian was swallowed by the Tendriculous, Hucker Graul was at 1 HP and right in front of Mladris, and Mladris was low enough on health that one good blow would kill her.
In a truly epic move, the Barbarian clawed his way out of the Tendriculous' stomach with just barely enough damage, stumbling out of the plant's body just in time to deal the final blow to Hucker Graul before he could kill Mladris. Unfortunately, the next round, the Tendriculous managed to swallow Mladris, and, despite a heroic attempt (and many, many bad rolls) to save her by her party, she perished the round before the Tendriculous was 'killed' by a barrage of arrows, and the party went on to loot the bodies.
It was at this point we ended the session, and, as the party failed their Knowledge checks to determine the nature of the Tendriculous' self-healing, are in for a very rough time in the very near future as they try to retreat.
My party faces Xanesha tonight, so these obits may be expanded further haha. Pray to your preferred deity for us!
Level 7 Sacred Fist/Monk (MoMS), Rogue, Sorceror (aberrant), and Fighter/Cavalier
PC: Raelyn? Kaijitsu
Details: Formerly human mesmerist 9
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Skull-ripped by Skullripper
The Gory Details: Skullripper got another kill. We were investigating the lower level of Skull's Crossing after intimidating/beating Wet Pappy Grazoul into submission. Raelyn touched the damn dam controls and the construct surprised us. We rolled terrible for initiative, and my wizard failed his save against fear (which ending up spelling his companion's doom). While he ran, the Skullripper crit with its first claw against the flatfooted mesmerist, beating her mesmeric images and grappling. The remaining strikes brought her from full to -6. Everyone rushed into the room, but too late. It maintained the grapple and added Raelyn's skull to the collection. We brought it down, but not before it grabbed our dwarf paladin and would have skull-ripped her too had it not rolled a 1 on the maintain.
Aftermath: We brought Raelyn back, reincarnated as a half-elf. Soon after, we accidentally vaporized the pit fiend before being able to talk to him.
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First kill for me so far, in this AP and in Pathfinder in general. I'm running the AE with a party of 5 players.
PC: Erzalin Faero
Class: Half-Elf Gunslinger 4
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Careless exploration
Story: After defeating and killing Nualia in the previous session, my party decided to press on even though two characters were hurt (one rather severely) and most were tapped on spell slots. Erzalin took point, finding the coin pillar, activating it with the help of the sorcerer. She then opened the doors containing Karzoug's ghost, the key to Malfeshnekor's room, and then Malfeshnekor's door itself before realizing what she'd done and slamming it shut.
Now, at this point I was thinking "cool, maybe now she gets the hint and will suggest leaving to rest up", but no, that's not how it went. She led everyone back past where the pillar was, and then opened the door with the shadows and started looking around without asking to make any checks. I rolled a 1 on the d4 for the delay prior to their attack, and despite the party's best efforts to prevent the shadows from doing their thing, within two rounds poor Erzalin faceplanted, having taken 11 points of strength damage. I rolled a 5 and three 6s for damage for the shadows over the course of the whole fight, and truth be told I was starting to feel a little bad for my players' luck. They ended up fleeing once they were all able to pull back from the doorway.
Because they had Shalelu with them, she quickly grabbed her lesser restoration potions and tried force feeding them to Erzalin, and due to some help from two other party members and an RP sequence that I thought up on the fly, Erzalin was granted a second chance at life rather than rising as a shadow. They all agreed to head back to Sandpoint after that, and now Erzalin has a phobia of doors.
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PC: Narvaskin Tarakona
Class: Bloodrager 1/Sorcerer 4
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalst: Graven Guardian of Pazuzu
Story: After the Heroes of Sandpoint learned of the gruesome murders of Banny Harker and Katrine Vinder, they could only think to investigate the home of the horrible murderer who plagued the town only a few years ago. In doing so they found it to be infested with hostile wildlife and demonic servants of Pazuzu. After a few close calls they had cleared the house itself and found a trapdoor leading down into the buried shrine beneath the building. Narvaskin and his wizard companion Nasi descended into the depths. Here ancient guardians lay in wait to defend the unholy site. The harpy-like statues came to life and attacked the two adventurers. Not long after the rest of the party arrived to assist in their fighting retreat, but Narvaskin was brave to take to the front in order to protect his allies. He valued his ally's time and safety over his own and refused healing from Strom, faithful of Desna. This was his last mistake as the unholy guardian moved with supernatural swiftness slashing him to his knees and stabbing down to make sure the job was done.
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PC: Mok
Class: Rogue 14
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors (Pathfinder2e) -> Halls of Wrath
Catalyst: Sinspawn Axemen
Story: The PCs got past the Iron Archer statue by solving a riddle for it, then successfully convinced the inhabitants of the Wrath Wing that they were there to pass 'the test' (trying to defeat their leader, High Lady Athroxis), though in reality they were looking for a teleportation portal. When they wanted to continue to the leader, they were held back as the inhabitants did not think they were ready. The PCs then convinced them to do a pre-test, a mock battle to show their strength. The inhabitants agreed that if the 4 PCs could beat 6 Sinspawn Axemen, they were ready for the test. Unfortunately, the rogue got downed and healed and then downed again multiple times, which in PF2 is the best way to get yourself killed. The last critical hit of a greataxe with power attack proved fatal, and the mock battle was cancelled.
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Name of PC: Strix
Class/Level: Undine Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Nualia
Story: After an initial foray at Nualia had ended in the party's tank being trapped on the other side of the Slashing Cage Trap, learning they were not invincible when they tried to take her solo and making it out only because they were mounted the party retreated, Nualia trapped behind the reactivated trap.
Barricading the door and healing up, they returned the next day with a plan. Placing a bed frame across the trap they avoided what had stymied them last time, but Nualia had changed her tactics and ambushed them. The cleric dropped to a crit but pulled through with hero points, everyone else but Strix failed their will save to a Bay and ran. Being a gunslinger he attempted a fighting retreat to keep them at range but was stymied when a Yeth Hound got through his square, cutting him off on the bed.
So Nualia cast Shatter on it. He survived the glaives, just, and got off a Tangleburn Bag which took out Nualia post-mortem before being savaged by a Yeth Hound. He came out well in the play the bard wrote about Book 1.
Name of PC: Bishop
Class/Level: Dwarf Cleric of Irori 6
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Skinsaw Man
Story: Unfortunately for Bishop, a series of criticals during the Swallowtail Festival led Aldern to choose him as his envy obsession. The party tried to help but the DPS got tarpitted by some some added mooks, a ghoul wolf to replace Aldern's dog and another dwarf ghoul that had been made up to look like Bishop. Backflipping through their lines the Skinsaw Man unleashed a few rounds of full attacks on the dwarf, who was torn to pieces. Bishop later retired to turn Thistletop into a monastery/guildhall of the Undine Flame with his brother after being reincarnated as a Gnoll.
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PC: Mok
Can't edit my post anymore so here's the aftermath.
After the fight with the sinspawn men, the party went on towards High Lady Athroxis. In the waiting room I put a prison with an Aasimar Sinspawn Cleric of Iomedae for Mok's player to play as (the group already has a paladin of Iomedae). With the help of this cleric they defeated Athroxis and found the teleportation circle to get out of Runeforge. They took Mok's body with them, but instead of going back to the material plane, Iomedae's herald grabbed them and took them to the Boneyard, to the River of Souls.There they saw Mok's soul going towards Pharasma's judgment, fought some Astradaemons, and also figured out that some of the souls from Varisia were missing the greedy part of their personality, causing a wrong judgment from Pharasma and disturbing the whole process. Outsiders asked them to figure out what was going on with this, as the PCs suspected Karzoug had something to do with it.
In the boneyard they found a high level cleric NPC and paid him to cast the Resurrect ritual on Mok, but unfortunately the NPC failed because he had never tried to resurrect such a powerful person before. It cost them most of their coin. Then they realized the NPC could also use the Raise Dead spell, which is more expensive but at least wouldn't fail. They sold everything they didn't need and Raised Mok's body, then returned to the Material Plane with the help of Iomedae's herald.
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PC: Farbe Rivergem (Halfling Bard 12)
Adventure: Sins of the Saviors (in the Ravenous Crypts)
Catalyst: Trying to be a big hero
The party was kind of resource-depleted after finishing their fight with Xyoddin Xerriock and the Mummies down the hall, but they decided to smash the crystal pylons around the negative plane portal before resting.
Cue the huge Nightwing. His cone of cold softened up most of the party. The bard got the fantastic idea to try cure spells as a touch attack, since they were pretty sure this creature would be vulnerable to them. It was, but Farbe was vulnerable to the Nightwing's attack of opportunity. Its bite scored a critical hit, and killed him instantly.
Once again, the party's druid attempted a Reincarnate spell - Farbe lives again as an Elf.
Ever since reincarnating he seems to have taken on a very haughty attitude.
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I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours of my life running Rise of the Runelord, and I look back on it now (a couple of years after it ended) with bittersweet fondness. I’ve saved all the deaths from the campaign for one big post, with deaths in (first-name) alphabetical order. Note these are only permanent deaths, and doesn’t include times when PCs were brought back to life through breath of life, raise dead, etc. Full stories can be found in the campaign recaps here
Unpredictable and Feared Axeman (Human Two-Handed Fighter 7)
Died: 16 Neth 4707 (Session # 37)
Cause of Death: Scythed by the Scarecrow in the Shadow Clock.
Dependable Officer of the Magnimar Guard (Human Drill Sergeant Fighter 2/Scout Sniper Rogue 6)
Died: 30 Kuthona 4707 (Session # 56)
Cause of Death: Punched to death by an ogre at the entrance to Hook Mountain.
Heart of the Heroes of Varisia (Grippli Cleric of Sinashakti 17)
Died: 13 Gozran 4708 (Session # 122)
Cause of Death: Turned into a frog and locked in temporal stasis by Karzoug.
Gentle but Powerful Barbarian (Human Barbarian 7)
Died: 16 Kuthona 4707 (Session # 44)
Cause of Death: Impaled by a marsh giant’s gaff hook near Turtleback Ferry.
Angel-blooded Jokester (Aasimar Preacher Inquisitor 5/Gunslinger 12)
Died: 13 Gozran 4708 (Session # 122)
Cause of Death: Succumbed to Karzoug’s wail of the banshee.
Transmuter and Resident of Sandpoint (Half-Orc Enhancer Wizard 5)
Died: 7 Lamashan 4707 (Session # 17)
Cause of Death: Crushed to death by a giant hermit crab under Thistletop.
Shoanti Brawler and Hero of Sandpoint (Human Brawler 4)
Died: 6 Lamashan 4707 (Session # 15)
Cause of Death: Killed by Nualia in Thistletop.
Dauntless Hero of Fort Rannick (Half-Orc Warpriest of Gorum 9)
Died: 24 Kuthona 4707 (Session # 53)
Cause of Death: Stabbed in the heart by Wet Papa Grazuul inside Skull’s Crossing.
Tragically Unlucky Knight (Dhampir Paladin of Vildeis 8)
Died: 24 Kuthona 4707 (Session # 53)
Cause of Death: Drowned in quicksand in the Shimmerglens.
Swashbuckling Swordsman Without Compare (Kitsune Swashbuckler 17)
Died: 13 Gozran 4708 (Session # 122)
Cause of Death: Succumbed to 4th layer of Karzoug’s prismatic sphere
Justifiably Egotistical Master Alchemist (Tiefling Alchemist 17)
Died: 13 Gozran 4708 (Session # 122)
Cause of Death: Killed self by jumping in lava in final defiance of Karzoug
Heroic Samurai (Human Samurai 9)
Died: 30 Kuthona 4707 (Session # 56)
Cause of Death: Felled by hill giant in brave attempt to save allies at Hook Mountain.
Shy Dancer from Magnimar (Fetchling Fighter 1/Bard 4/Shadowdancer 2)
Died: 22 Kuthona 4707 (Session # 51)
Cause of Death: Squeezed to death by Black Magga
Bloodrager and Outcast (Hobgoblin Crossblooded Rager & Spelleater Bloodrager 4)
Died: 6 Lamashan 4707 (Session # 15)
Cause of Death: Killed by Nualia in Thistletop
Mysterious Masked Ninja (Elf Ninja 11)
Died: 3 Calistril 4708 (Session # 70)
Cause of Death: Killed by kobold longspear and necklace of fireballs under Jorgenfist.
Ranger and Deputy Sheriff of Sandpoint (Human Ranger 3)
Died: 5 Lamashan 4707 (Session # 12)
Cause of Death: Fell from a trapped rope bridge during an assault on Thistletop.
Inquisitor of Calistria (Tengu Heretic Inquisitor 6)
Died: 5 Neth 4707 (Session # 24)
Cause of Death: Throat crushed by a ghoul in the Sandpoint hinterlands.
Hero and Musket Master (Goblin Gunslinger 8)
Died: 22 Kuthona 4707 (Session # 51)
Cause of Death: Bisected by Black Magga
Fire Mage Supreme (Half-Elf Spell Sage Wizard 12)
Died: 10 Calistran 4708 (Session # 81)
Cause of Death: Killed by babau demons in the Scribbler’s complex under Sandpoint
Ill-Fated Sneak (Dhampir Burglar Rogue 9)
Died: 30 Kuthona 4707 (Session # 56)
Cause of Death: Disemboweled by a Hook Mountain ogre.
Paladin of Ragathiel (Aasimar Paladin of Ragathiel ?)
Died: 4 Calistril 4708 (Session # 73)
Cause of Death: Killed by lamia clerics of Lamashtu in Jorgenfist.
Wizard and Hero of Sandpoint (Human Wizard 2)
Died: 27 Rova 407 (Session # 6)
Cause of Death: Killed by a coup de grace from the quasit Erylium under Sandpoint.
Gillman Warrior and Storyteller (Gillman Barbarian 12)
Died: 4 Pharast 4708 (Session # 95)
Cause of Death: Killed by the loving embrace of a succubus demon in Runeforge.
Wow. Twenty-three deaths across the campaign. Did anyone survive? :-)
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Wow. Twenty-three deaths across the campaign. Did anyone survive? :-)
Karzoug.
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in the final fight with Karzoug, the players gave up because he intentionally changed the rules of spells with the intention of defeating players. Overrode the established motivations of an accompanying npc, and(upon looking into the book later) ignored the morale conditions of the cloud giants.
He had a tendency to run encounters as deadly as he could, killing PCs whenever possible. And then when new PCs came in more powerful(as a kind of min maxing evolution), would taunt the players about being minmax'ers, insult us for looting dead comrades due to how he ran loot and the selling of it and eventually complain about PC power. Leading him to be MORE aggressive, forcing further minmax'd character design evolution that he refused to acknowledge.
and when a new player(new to tabletop gaming in general) joined in the final book of the AP, he was told to make a character with no guidance beyond the players guide. Leading to a character that was devorced from the themes of the campaign and mechanically lacking in the end. At which point the DM proceeded to rub the players face in the fact that the character was not as balanced as the rest of the pcs(the ones he insulted for being TOO powerful) and eventually used the PC as a punching bag in order to drain party resources regardless what the best tactical choice in the situation was. The player left the game at the top of the mountain at the end of the game, before the final dungeoncrawl to the boss fight. Which the DM then took as a moment to have the quite honourable character; run away in the middle of the night.
overall, not pleased with the campaign.
Signed: Artemis Lahs, Erik Armos, Eugeni, Nedrin, Salma al-Khashramyah, and Xeveg Kishalq
This is a very public calling-out, and obviously I have a lot to say in response. But . . . this isn't the time or thread for two gaming nerds to argue about what happened in a private home campaign two years ago. So I'm not going to post any further on it :)
Sounds very Turin the Maddish
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If you're not satisfied with a campaign, its up to you to seriously discuss it with your GM. There's nothing wrong with saying "Hey, I'm not having fun with the way you're running things." For as much power as the GM has, the game is a collaborative experience where you're all trying to have fun together. Earnestly asking for the difficulty to be easier may be a tough thing to say, but its important for the GM to properly understand what you and your fellow players would like to get out of your TTRPG session.
If you let those clashing expectations simmer, they turn to resentment that really has no reason to exist. The sooner you sit down and discuss (and sometimes you'll have to discuss it multiple times), the more fun everyone at the table will have.
Also, an extremely old obituary (from many years ago at this point):
Name of PC: Ivon Ballard (IIRC)
Classes/Levels: Sorcerer 6
Adventure: Book 2
Catalyst: Hitting the Sawmill on the wrong day
Story: One of my first Pathfinder experiences was RotRL. I played a sorcerer with 10 CON, didn't know mage armor was a thing, and had no understanding of tactics or pre-buffing. I think I had an HP in the low 20s and an AC of 11 all the time. In retrospect, his days were numbered from the get-go.
As we started investigating the Seven's Sawmill, the player of our 4th party member fell asleep (he'd had a long day), so we decided to continue on in with three members of the party while his character stayed outside. We snuck all the way up to the top floor only to find every cultist in the building there arrayed against us. The cultists wasted no time in jumping down the stairs in order to surround us, and after eating only one round of sneak attacks, it was clear the odds were against us and we'd need to run. Our precarious position left us no avenue of escape except to jump down the stairwell to the ground floor. Although one party member had a way to cushion our fall, the remaining fall damage was too much for poor Ivon and he lost consciousness. His body was left behind in the rush to escape and he was summarily executed by the cult.
PC: Galathorn the Unbroken
Class: Champion 16
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast (Pathfinder2e) -> Whispers in the wind
Catalyst: Wendigo
Story: After defeating the ghost of Karivek Vekker and finding his remains, the PCs hid in a tunnel burrowed by the Frost Worm to find shelter from the growing blizzard. Galathorn, the brave Paladin of Iomedae, stood watch outside, as they heard a second howl from a magical beast. The Wendigo appeared behind him, thinking the lonely champion would be an easy prey, but Galathorn reacted fast, and called his allies to battle. Together they managed to severely damage the creature, at which point it began to flee into the storm. The party wizard transformed into a dragon and followed it, while Galathorn jumped on the dragon's back. After searching and trying to maneuver through the blizzard, they got close enough to the creature that Galathorn could damage it even more with his runeforged blade, but the Wendigo fled again. This time it took more effort but they found it, though the dragon wizard had trouble getting close to it. Galathorn managed to make a 90 feet jump to get to the Wendigo, grabbed it and held on to it, but the Wendigo caused Galathorn to ride the wind and took him along by transforming them both into snowclouds. The wizard's dragon form would soon end, and he didn't manage to stay close to the Wendigo in the blizzard so finally turned back, while Galathorn decided to stay in the wind walk form with the Wendigo. The Wendigo took him to a distant mountain top while getting healed back to full health, where it had a duel with Galathorn who was almost out of abilities. Galathorn alone was no match for the Wendigo, and got clawed to death and then eaten.
Aftermath: At this high level, the player probably doesn't want to make a new character anymore, and maybe also doesn't want to get resurrected, so sadly the other players might have to try to defeat Karzoug without him.
Name of PC: Gat
Class/Level: Lizardfolk Slayer 10
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Hag Coven
Story: Due in part because Lucrecia survived and in part because the party absolutely slaughtered the ogres outside of the Annis Hag's cavern, they opened up with a more diplomatic approach. Although reluctant to give amnesty to something so evil, the party ended up hearing them out. Unfortunately for the hags, the session before a lizardfolk native to the Shimmerglens had joined the party, and at the end of the questions he attacked to make sure their avenging of Princess Myriana didn't have any loose ends. Normal party formation had already broken up when he went to throw the first javelin and so when the wizard won initiave he panicked and dimension door'd out of there before they could start dropping coven spells. The hags got off an Obscuring Mist, largely screwing over the remaining back line except for a Glitterdust cast by the bard blinding a hag and the tank. Then Gat charged in getting off a sneak attack but underestimating how damaging a full attack can be from a group of creatures with Rend.
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PC: Mitlana Kazrenton
Race/classes/levels: Aasimar Bard 5
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Location: Fields around the Hambley Farm
Catalyst: Split-up party
Story: Approaching the Hambley Farm, the party unwisely decided to split up to cover more ground.
Mitlana and the group's fighter were by themselves with two guards from Sandpoint. When they were assaulted by 3 ghouls, Mitlana and one guard were paralyzed and their two companions couldn't intervene in time to prevent one ghoul from striking a coup-de-grace on poor Mitlana.
Using hero points, she survived for now.
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PC: Gronclaf Deyenak
Race/classes/levels: Human Fighter 7
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Location: The Shadow Clock
Catalyst: The party being stingy with the CLW wand.
Story: While fighting Xanesha atop the Shadow Clock (the toned-down Anniversary Edition version, but still a dangerous foe), poor Gronclaf was hit by a critical from the lamia matriarch's spear.
This pretty much killed him in one shot.
He started the fight 7 hp short of his maximum, because the group's healers didn't want to "waste" too many charges from the group's wand of Cure Light Wounds. If he had been fully healed, he would have (barely) survived the deadly blow...
Using hero points, though, he survived for now.
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PC: Mitlana Kazrenton
Race/classes/levels: Aasimar Bard 8
Adventure: The Hook Mountain Massacre
Location: B3 (Infirmary)
Catalyst: Bad luck
Story: This was simply a case of unfortunate dice rolls.
Mitlana rolled high in initiative and entered the infirmary to fight Silas Kreeg ahead of the rest of the party.
She felt well-protected with a decent armor class and her Mirror Image spell.
However, Silas went right after her, hit her with a critical with his ogre hook, bypassing her mirror images by pure luck and bringing her from full health to -28 hp in one shot.
Using hero points, though, Mitlana survived once again.
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PC: Mitlana Kazrenton
Race/classes/levels: Aasimar Bard 9
Adventure: The Hook Mountain Massacre
Location: Turtleback Ferry
Catalyst: Standing next to the group's highest damage dealer
Story: When the flood threatened Turtleback Ferry, Mitlana heroically saved the schoolmistress and children from the giant snake that was threatening them.
After this final moment of glory for our beloved bard, the party found itself facing the deadly Black Magga.
The Mother of Oblivion's breath of madness caused a confusion effect on the party's high-damage two-handed-sword fighter.
Mitlana resisted the confusion, but was the person standing closest to the fighter.
She figured, once again, that she had a decent chance of surviving any attack from him, as she was once again protected by Mirror Image.
As the rest of the party was trying ineffectually to damage Black Magga, the confused fighter randomly attacked the nearest creature (Mitlana), managed to bypass her mirror images, scoring a critical and a regular hit on the unfortunate bard.
Poor Mitlana was brought from full health to -48 hp.
This time, she had no action points left to escape death, so it was the end of her story.
PC: Cathedra
Race/Class/Level: Half Elf Magus 1
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Level one characters are squishy.
Story: Being the only female in the party, Aldern Foxglove naturally takes an interest in her after she takes part in his rescue, so at the party's first available opportunity, they take the nobleman up on his offer to go out for a boar hunt. Though the party brings the beast back for a feast, the merry gathering turns into a funeral procession as Cathedra's guts were pulled from her body by a critical gore.
Aftermath: The magus was supposed to meet her sister, a barbarian named Varisa. She arrived after her sister's death and Aldern's departure, just in time to hear about a family being terrorized by a closet goblin.
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Name: Orteus Valdemar
Race/classes/levels: Tiefling Medium 13
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Location: C6
Catalyst: Underestimating Galenmir's damage output
Story: The party killed Galenmir and 4 stone giant guards on their first day of exploration of Jorgenfist.
Upon returning the second day, they encountered these slain foes again on level 2 of Jorgenfist, in the long hallway in front of the library. They had been resurrected as Runeslaves by Mokmurian during the night.
The fight was going relatively well for the party, even though they were surrounded by giants on two sides.
Orteus found himself fighting Galenmir by himself while the rest of the party focused on the regular giants on the other side.
Since Galenmir had been trivially defeated the previous day thanks to a Slumber Hex, Orteus didn't really worry too much about facing him alone.
He was surprised when the "Runeslave" version of Galenmir was able to cast Haste on himself to get 4 attacks per round, and was able to bring him from 104 hp to -22 in one round. No criticals, even, just 4 regular hits.
Using hero points, though, Orteus survived for now.
Three deaths between two PCs. Currently near the end of Book 4 in the anniversary edition.
Character: Vale, Dreamthief Changeling Alchemist (Vivisectionist) 6/Mortal Usher 1.
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Location: E1: The Scarecrow's Lair
Catalyst: Overconfidence, one lucky crit.
Story: The party did not notice Scarecrow hiding, so it stepped out after the party began to spread out and search the ground floor of The Shadow Clock. The awakened flesh golem drew their scythe and slashed at the party's healer, narrowly missing her.
Vale then attempted to change forward and make a claw attack, hoping to draw attention away from the fragile healer. Unfortunately, the player forgot to refresh their defensive buffs before entering the building. Unfortunately, the player decided that they would take the attack of opportunity. Unfortunately, the Scarecrow rolled a natural 20, then another. As is often the case with high crit weapons, I dealt enough damage with the x4 crit scythe to instantly kill Vale, slicing her from shoulder to hip in a single, neat cut.
The party then finished the fight, took Vale's neatly-bisected body, and went off to the church of Sarenrae to spend all their hard-earned rewards for the book to buy a single raise dead scroll, which the healer (a Kitsune Oracle) used to bring Vale back.
Character: Vale, same race, Alchemist (Vivisectionist) 6/Mortal Usher 4.
Adventure: The Hook Mountain Massacre
Location: D1: The Entrance
Catalyst: Ogre Fighter getting a lucky crit.
Story: Not much, just a lucky crit on an already-injured character proving lethal. Healer had not yet learned breath of life, leading to a side adventure to restore the alchemist to life.
Character: Andêl, Archon-blooded Aasimar Unchained Monk (Scarred Monk) 11. I house-ruled that the player could take that archetype with the Unchained variant, despite it not being normally compatible.
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants.
Location: B3: The General's Lair
Catalyst: Underestimating Galenmir's damage output while in a tactically strong position.
Story: Andêl was scouting ahead of the party, when they noticed Galenmir approaching from his Lair after being alerted to intruders. He was in a narrow passage, meaning he could not move much, so he decided to stand his ground there.
Andêl then attacked Galenmir, using their Scarred Monk abilities to inflict damage back upon Galenmir as they were hit repeatedly. Unfortunately, the healer was unable to close in and heal Andêl due to the narrow caves, and the sudden appearance of Enga the Kobold Barbarian to provide backup meant that Galenmir could continue making full attacks until one finally dropped Andêl. Breath of life managed to save the day, and the party then had to rest and recuperate after that one.
Name of PC: Maravicar Jurgen Hellbrecht
Class/Level: Human Godclaw Oracle 7/Hellknight Signifer 6
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Giving Mokmurian time to fortify Jorgenfist after an incursion.
Story: After fighting their way through most of the Caverns layer the party was running on empty and teleported back to Magnimar to rest and spend their loot. But Jorgenfist wasn't idle. Galenmir pulled his Gaseous Form escape early due to being disarmed in the combat and out of options so he gathered the giants and set them to patrol the level in shifts. Mokmurian was also not idle, and gathered the bodies of Lokansir and some of the deceased stone giants and ran them through the Runeslave Cauldron, ordering Lokansir to prevent them from reaching the bottom level. Having freshly killed and looted the tyrant trolls the party was caught by surprise when a once again living Lokansir burst out of the ground and opened with Earth-Shaking Bellow, collapsing the roof of the tunnel onto the party, Jurgen took the full brunt of the cave in and with a lucky pick of masterpieces the level before the bard freed the buried PCs. Kicking away the Kineticist Knight who had killed him last time Lokansir fell under attack from the party but resisted pretty well getting another full attack off, critting and killing the Signifer with two blows. Thanks to a lucky initiative order and some repositioning of the body the party managed to get off a Breath of Life scroll just before it was too late and the party finished off Lokansir once again and desended to the library level.
(Reading back, I realised that I'd forgotten to add this one.)
Name of PC: Saoirse Fireholder
Species: Ratatosk (size Small ARG-based homebrew inspired on the 3.5 ratatosk by WotC)
Class/Level/Species: Druid (menhir savant) 13
Adventure: Book 4, Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Mokmurian and minions
Story: The fight with Mokmurian got a bit messy, what with the Solid Fog dividing the party and other things going on, and Saoirse went down.
The player decided not to use hero points to keep her character alive but on the brink (the only way that we use hero points), reasoning that it would just give M's minions another chance to kill her if they noticed that she was still breathing.
After the battle (and subsequent looting), the party teleported back to Magnimar and paid for a Raise Dead for Saoirse.
Name of PC: Thrummond Grumblewolf (a.k.a. Thrum)
Race/Class/level: Dwarf Druid 2
Adventure: Burnt Offerings (Catacombs of Wrath)
Location: B4, later at the Rusty Dragon Inn.
Catalyst: Should have swiped the other way before the Tinder date with a potential screamer (Vargouille).
Story: After some bad ice breaker saving throws, kissing on the first date proved lethal later. After failing to meet for breakfast at the Rusty Dragon, the group went up to his room in time to witness poor Thrum's head detaching and attacking them in a "Oh hey guys!" moment.
Real Story: Player wasn't all in on playing a Druid to begin with and wanted to switch to a Cleric instead.
Name of PC: Boragul
Race/Class/level: Half Orc, Barbarian, LVL 9
Adventure: ROTRL Hook Mountain Massacre
Location: Hallway inside Fort Rannick
Catalyst: Silas Kreeg
Story: The Bard Dandelion cast Unnatural Lust on Silas Kreeg (Ogre) forcing him to run through the entire party to get to him. In some unbelievable bad luck everyone either missed on their attacks of opportunity or had ranged weapons out and did not get an AOO. 4 characters and 4 NPC's in all. During the next round Silas was peppered with arrows and attacked by Boragul, bringing him down to about 25% of his total health. Silas took a full attack action as revenge on Boragul and critted him twice doing 182 points of damage. We show the dice rolls in my game. Silas used his magical Ogre Hook to rip out his throat on the first attack and he was able to rip off his head with the second. Boragul at the time only had 74 total hp's. The Sandpoint Six are now down to 3 original members.
Name of PC: Kiriik
Race/Class/Level: Tengu Lv 9 Slayer
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Skull Ripper
Story: Upon entering the room with the Skull Ripper, Kiriik got set upon it real quick. Failing his Will Save against the Skull Ripper's visage, he attempted to flee. Skull Ripper got its AoO and was able to grab Kiriik. Despite the rest of party doing their best to get Kiriik free from the Skull Ripper's claws, it grabbed him one more time and squeezed the life out of Kiriik before gruesomely ripping his head from his dead body.