I see that my PCs are not the only ones who have suffered with snakes :P I was surprised, really; I underestimated the encounter. I saw CR5 and not pay attention them. Avidexu seemed hard to kill, but not dangerous. But...
I have learned the lesson: "Never think that a encounter designed by Paizo will be easy" :P
The snakes seem a little strong for CR5, really. I'll give them something more of experience…
Name of PC: Hork Bonk
Class/Level: Half-Orc Barbarian 11/ Fighter 2
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Catalyst: Fireball
Name of PC: Nicodemus d'Gartenzwergi
Class/Level: Gnome Sorcerer 13
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Catalyst: Disintigrate spell
Story: The group made a direct assault on the castle in Korvosa, quickling ending up in the throneroom and killing the fake Ileosa. Unfortunately, the entire castle was alerted quickly to their presence and converged on them. Sermignatto attacked Nicodemus and possessed him, as Togomor had been killed already by a failed saving throw vs. the PC wizard's disintigrate spell. Nicodemus then fired off a fireball into the group, killing Hork. Tio, the PC wizard, had a contingency spell in place set to be triggered by another PC casting a hostile spell at him. So, the contingency was tripped and Nicodemus was killed by Tio's disintigrate. Hork was raised more or less right away, the party is trying to decide what to do about Nicodemus.
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Name of PC: Kah-Lyn
Class/Level: Half-orc Monk 3
Adventure: Edge of Anarchy
Catalyst: Carrion Golem, stupidity and poor party balance.
Story: So, in my campaign, the majority of my players are old hands at D&D, and so they like to mix it up with secondary and tertiary character classes. Fair enough. But they don't coordinate this with each other, and they end up with a group consisting of a sorcerer, a rogue, a druid and a monk for the front line. Idiots.
Anyway, the Druid and the Monk had been pulling meat-shield duty, to varying degrees of success, but give 'em credit, they tried. By this point, (the Dead Warrens) the Sorceror had gone to neg HP once, and the monk had been having AMAZINGLY bad luck with enemy crits, going down not once, not twice, but THREE times to Various baddies. (Mostly is was the skeletons, of all things. not the owlbear, but the vanilla skellies.) But I never quite managed to gack him, and they kept patching him up.
Well they'd gone through most of the dungeon, put down Vreeg with contemptuous ease (He'd failed his perception 10 check and wasn't flying before combat) and circled back to the carrion golem's room. And instead of backing out of that stupid frigging hallway so they could all get at it, the monk just stood in the doorway going toe to toe with the thing until a FOURTH crit dropped him to -18. THEN they decided it might be a good idea to retreat to a better venue.
Now we're into the second module, and I've convinced them that party balance really does matter. I look forward to a new Fighter and a Paladin/Cleric showing up.
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Name of PC : Vyl LYnn
cl/ lev : sorc 5/ rogue 2
adv : 7DTtG
cat : Lady Andisins SLAY LIVING
story ; after abit of rough and tumble vs. the clerics and undead
(I added a few) the party decides to push on, (yeah!!!!! ,for me) they encounter the recently healed vampire alng wit the clerics and the Lady. While clerics are cannon fodder vamp is harassed by DAYLIGHT, but not before draining party mage 4 of her 10 con. Meanwhile Lady assaults with spells and negative energy attacks retreats to mist heals and presses on . Runing low on spells and tiring of the sorc thowing ORBS of Lightning (yes I allow them) she politly slays him . This give the remaining party some motivation to kill her . Unfortunatly her resurected form didn't manage to finish them (dam low rolls to hit).
But at least I got one.
Does this count?
Name of PC: Hethibarb Arkona
Class/Level: Aristocrat 3/Rogue 3
Adventure: Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale (CotCT interlude)
Catalyst: flame drake
Story: The party was approaching the final dungeon when four flame drakes flew out to intercept them. It turns out that the group is fantastic at diplomacy and pretty good at melee combat but pretty sucky at ranged attacks.
Name of PC: Dagger the hippogriff
Class/Level: magical beast 3
Adventure: Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale (CotCT interlude)
Catalyst: flame drake
Story: Leutnant Serai Leroung of the Sable Company faced four flame drakes in the air as she flew above the rest of the party. She survived (barely), but her steed/animal companion did not.
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Name of PC: Ehlaria Arathimayar
Class/Level: Sorcerer 3
Adventure: Edge of Anarchy
Catalyst: Critical Scorching Ray
Story: During the fight with Vreeg, Ehlaria suffered a critical hit with a Scorching Ray, dropping her from full health to -16. Given that she'd been dealing the death blow to creatures all night, her player decided to take this as karma.
Full details here
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2 Deaths to add to the tally, one totally legit, the other is kinda funky.
Where: Under the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden
Catalyst: Lady Andasain and her crazy crazy Save or Die spells, and a big old scythe.
Who: Kura Satsu, Cleric of Nethys 6, and Yuri, Rogue 6. Both were human at the time.
The party has fought their way through the entire hospice, slaughtering clerics, rogues, Dr. D., grey maidens, daemons, and the like, all the while taking little hits here and there.
They basically took on the entire hospice at one go (there are 5 players), with a break in the middle to level (but no resting, so no new spells/etc) after fighting and driving off Rolth.
Noone was in really serious danger with the exception of the fight against Arkminos (yes, they managed to fight him off and destroy the vamp.) and the Cleric was stabbed pretty weakly by an invisible Dr. D.
They decided to continue down the tunnel of doom, despite their low resource status.
Sneaking up to Lady A. the rogue manages to evade her perception by remaining invisible. He then moves in, takes his shot, gets initiative, and moves in for some melee damage. The rest of the party rushes in after his turn, but she casts Slay Living, dropping Yuri to -8 or so HP.
1 down.
The party mobs her shorty, pinging with MM wands, healing with Cure Mod Wands, and the fighter/evil cleric of nethys/neutral cleric of nethys all move up to engage in close range. A timely Dispel Magic off a scroll drops a lot of her buff spells, and they manage to put some hurt on her. Before they can take her out, though, she lands a full attack on Kura, including a nice Nat-20 at the end of the routine.
Confirmed crit, double damage crit card + her battle smite and the other attacks landing, and one dead cleric at about -16 or -18 or so.
The party put her down pretty readily after that, with her major defensive magic dispelled, then ran away when her body began the transformation.
The end-game was quite fun, very reminiscent of the early Resident Evil games, with doors being locked on the new Daughter and massive focused fire on her when they corner her in the giant vat room.
Kura came back as a bugbear, increasing her already pretty hefty lethality and survivability, while Yuri was healed successfully during the combat with Lady A.
The first scroll, however, was unknowingly created as a cursed, evil-specific scroll of Reincarnate, which rolled a 100 result on the die. Yuri, who had been UMD'ing the scroll, was instantly slain and reincarnated without level penalty as a hellbred. He then decided NOT to continue adventuring with the mostly evil party, and his player is making a new rogue now.
So, character "death" technically did not happen there, but it still counts in my opinion.
-T
Name of PC: Erst Fordyce
Class/Level: Aristocrat 1/Rogue 8
Adventure: Escape From Old Korvosa
Catalyst: Jabbyr's greataxe
Story: After Erst slew "Emperor" Pilts, Jabbyr couldn't contain himself and chopped at Erst repeatedly and with fury. A critical hit chopped Erst nearly in half.
Name of PC: Darwin, Orr, Sirak
Class/Level: Brd12, Ftr12, Pal12
Adventure: Skeletons of Scarwall
Catalyst: Poor will saves
Story: PCs enter Scarwall by breaking the glass in the ballroom and lowering down on a rope. The Danse makes his appearance and the three PCs above fail their will save and begin dancing.
Party cleric uses some cure spells to do some damage. Rogue can't get past the Danse's DR and the wizard can't get past the SR. Between the tree of them, they can't do enough damage fast enough and all three dancing PCs have lost their CHA.
By RAW, they'd all be dead. IMC, Darwin spends one of his Hero points to get a new Will save and then uses 4 of his 5 Harrow Deck rolls before finally making the Will save. DM allows the bard to use his countersong ability to get the other PCs new saves. Using the bard's Perform check as the save, they break out of the dance as well.
But, since they use the ballroom as the exit/entrance to Scarwall, they're bound to run into the Danse again.
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This adventure path is the first time I've ever run D&D, and this would be my first ever near-TPK...
Name of PC / Class/Level: Maximilian (Wizard 5/Paladin of Iomedae 1), Adela (Monk 6), Kayvon (Druid 6), Loisha - almost (Rogue 6), Lucien - almost (Fighter 6)
Adventure: Seven Days to the Grave
Catalyst: A deadly combination of Rolth, Jolistina, a party of gung-ho and unprepared PCs, and the dice being on the DM's side
Story:
The party of five had enraged Rolth by destroying his lab in the Dead Warrens, and in retribution he had located their fledgeling magic shop (in the scrubbed-clean building which used to be All The World's Meat) and sent a second flesh golem to give the PCs a taste of their own medicine. Unfortunately, only half the party were at home when the flesh golem came calling. After it stomped Adela into the ground (-9HP), nearly killed Loisha, and trashed the shop, the party had built a healthy hatred of Rolth.
They had also come across Jolistina's handiwork in the abandoned Carowyn Manor, filled with plague victims who had risen in half-undeath. They had found Ausio Carowyn in the wine celler, but he would only babble about "the Harlequin".
When they finally discovered the secret of the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden, the party diplomanced the Grey Maidens into letting them see Davaulus without any fighting. Of course, most of the Hospice's Maidens and Doctors followed them up, and when the PCs accused Davaulus of being the plague's source and presented their evidence, he cast Invisibility and escaped, leaving the party to fight their way out from underneath the resulting dogpile.
They emerged hurt but victorious, discovered the secret passage down to the Temple, fought their way through the temple guards (Loisha being reduced to -2 by a cleric's scythe crit), and nearly lost two party members to two separate door-skeleton-scythe traps (Lucien and Loisha - by now developing a healthy fear of scythes).
They chased Jolistina through the Princess's Bacchanal (which I'd expanded into a twelve-room maze - a miniature version of Jolistina's running-away-giggling encounter from Carowyn Manor) and nearly got her, but unwisely decided not to search for her once she used one of her potions of Invisibility, but instead to go through the large double doors that they'd ended up in front of.
By this point, the party was down almost all of their healing, with no healing spells left and no charges remaining in their healing wands. Half of the wizard's and druid's spells were gone. They decided to press on regardless - after all, nothing they'd faced before had managed to do any worse than knocking out a single party member...
The PCs found themselves in Rolth's lab, with Rolth spitting obscenities at them from behind a wall of zombies and two clerics of Urgathoa. Rolth added injury to insult on his first round, catching three of the five party members in an Ice Storm and taking off half their health. Meanwhile, Lucien overran his way through the zombies and killed one of the clerics, only to be brought up short on Rolth's next turn by a Hold Person. The remaining cleric took his scythe to Lucien's throat, then Rolth took him down to just above zero with a Scorching Ray to the face at point-blank range.
On the next round, Adela - who had been making her way across the chamber's ceiling above the wall of zombies - launched herself from a height and tackled the cleric who had been about to end Lucien's life with another scythe slice. The cleric struggled and managed to get off a Bleeding Touch on Adela before being pinned.
Meanwhile, Jolistina had realised where the party were heading and rushed to help her prince - starting off by cracking the door open slightly and sneak attacking Kayvon through it, reducing him to negative HP. Max slammed the door in Jolistina's face while he forced a potion down the unconscious Kayvon's throat, then held Jolistina off with his glaive when she forced her way into the room. Loisha abandoned his so-far-unsuccessful attempt to get past the zombies and took the opportunity to skewer Jolistina with his rapier.
Feeling trapped, Jolistina tumbled out of harm's way with a typically flashy cartwheel, finishing off by quaffing a potion of Invisibility. Rolth, with both of the combatants who'd reached him otherwise occupied, decided to do something about the remaining interlopers, and fired a lightning bolt down the length of the room - taking out one of the bed-bound prisoners and two zombies, and instantly frying both Kayvon and Max, who had been low on health.
The cleric's bleeding touch finally took its toll on Adela, who fell to zero HP and chose to use her Disabled action to release the cleric and attempt to take a potion. Unfortunately, the cleric's attack of opportunity rolled a crit, and his scythe swing cut her in two.
Loisha, finding himself without a target, tumbled past the zombies and wound up next to Rolth. His plans to make necromancer kabob were cut short by Jolistina's crossbow bolt embedding itself in his back, taking him into negative HP.
Rolth took a moment to gloat on the scene - four dead PCs and one paralysed (Lucien hadn't managed to roll higher than 4 on any of the five will saves he'd rolled) - then called Jolistina to him and Dimension Doored out. The remaining cleric fled from the seemingly-indestructable fighter who had taken out his comrade in one turn and was bound to come out of paralysis fairly quickly.
When Lucien finally regained movement, he gathered up his companions' bodies, piled them on a plague cart, and dragged them south to the Temple of Pharasma to call in some favours...
Epilogue:
Davaulus is currently rebuilding the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden. The Queen has released an edict calling for the death of the vicious criminals who had slaughtered the entire population of the Hospice. As a result, the party are hiding out in the crypts and catacombs of Gray District, sending Loisha and Majenko out at night to gather news and supplies. They're trying to decide between hunting down Rolth, contacting Devargo Barvasi, or simply storming the Hospice again and finishing the job. They're also now significantly more wary about kicking down doors and rushing in unprepared...
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When: During the Foray into the Vivified Labyrinth.
Catalyst: Imp. Crit Scimitar and the Critical Hit Deck
Who: Clint, Rogue/Fighter approx level 8 at time of death.
The party successfully talks with Glorio Arkona, getting the information they wanted, the location of the 1st 2 secret doors, and the password to bypass the elephant/elemental combat.
The rogue deliberately does not say the password, and gets nearly stomped to death by the elephant. The elemental pasted the wizard, dropping him into negatives not once, but twice.
Onto the Cat's Cradle area, and the Garden Guardians. I gave them potions of invisibility (gotta get them to use those spells somehow, and potions work), and they got the drop on the party, throwing 3 critical threats confirmed in the surprise round, Silencing the wizard, Con-damaging the rogue, and Blinding the fighter. The party rallies, focusing fire on 2 of the critters, and they take them down in good order.
The rogue, using a holy rifle, provokes an AoO from reloading, whereupon I roll yet another confirmed Critical. Drawing from the card, the rogue's player simply throws it across the table; the dreaded Slashing: Decapitation. Needing a Nat-20 on the requisite fort save, he fails, and off comes his head.
In the same night, I dropped the wizard into negatives twice, killed the rogue with the lucky crit, and later beat the healer-cleric into unconsciousness with the vital-striking fists of Vimanda.
-t
Name of PC: Hugh
Class/Level: Clr12
Adventure: Skeletons of Scarwall
Catalyst: Telling the truth, Lack of hit points
The party has already defeated Mithrodar when they encounter Nihil. Nihil is curious as to what has happened and calls out the party cleric to explain things. Being one of those honest types, Hugh, the cleric, explains in no uncertain terms that they're hear to deal with everything evil, their mothers, and throws in some other IMC insults to Nihil.
A running battle commences. Nihil lays down some area effect spells which badly injure the party. They retreat from the tower and try to heal up. As they do Nihil throws open the trapdoor from the roof above. Party flees to the hallway. Nihil teleports to the hallway, the PCs attempt to make a stand, and Hugh ends up the target of Nihil's Chain Lightning. Being a sickly, elderly priest, Hugh doesn't have enough hit points to survive the blast even though he's at full.
Name of PC: Devereux
Class/Level: Celestial Sorcerer 7th(I think)
Adventure: "Escape from Old Korvosa"
Catalyst: Pilts, Confused Orc Barbarian with an Earthbreaker
Story: The Emporer of Old Korvosa, Pilts, got bored of his Rod of Wonder and decided a Confusion spell would be fun. Unfortunately for me, I was standing beside the Orc Barbarian when it happend. Two hits later I was Celestial paste at -30+, the first hit put me at 1 HP.
This is techincally a confirmed kill, but our DM (Brutesquad07, see the Playtest board) runs with a Fate points system(similar to Hero/Action points) and I was able to reset myself to -1 bleeding out. I was ok with the death, to some extent, but he asked that I stick with the fate point scenario and not roll up a new character for the following session as we ended with me being splattered on the Blood Pig arena floor.
Name of PC: Sirak
Class/Level: Paladin 12
Adventure: "Skeletons of Scarwall"
Catalyst: Party splitting up
Story: Deep in the Star Tower, the party encounters Idlevrok and gets in some trouble. They manage to trap Idelvrok behind a Wall of Force and half of the party (including Sirak) retreats. The other half of the party thinks they should take advantage of the trapped nightwing and leaps into blue-light shaft and then out to the tunnels and the lake.
Sirak and Ivan heal up and then eventually start after the rest of the party. By this time Idlevrok has summoned a Dread Wraith. Sirak and Ivan engage the dead wraith but start hearing screams for help from the rest of the party. The brave paladin encourages Ivan to go help the party while he deals with the wraith. Fighting one on one, Sirak doesn't do so well and is quickly drained of all his CON.
Name of PC: Virgil Metheus
Class/Level: Elf Wizard 6
Adventure: Escape from Old Korvosa
Catalyst: Ambushed while trying to avoid being ambushed
Story: The PCs approached Vencarlo's home at the beginning of Escape and scoped the place out. It was night, and when the halfling rogue looked in the upstairs windows, he could see several armed figures standing there (really, practice dummies). Anticipating an ambush, the melee types headed upstairs while Virgil decided to hide in a corner until the fighting was over. Unfortunately, he chose the worst corner in the whole building and got full-round sneak attacked. As a min-maxed character who decided to ignore AC, he took all 4 hits for 4d8+4 plus 12d6 sneak attack.
Name of PC: Virgil Metheus
Class/Level: Elf Wizard 6
Adventure: Escape from Old Korvosa
Catalyst: Ambushed while trying to avoid being ambushed
Story: The PCs approached Vencarlo's home at the beginning of Escape and scoped the place out. It was night, and when the halfling rogue looked in the upstairs windows, he could see several armed figures standing there (really, practice dummies). Anticipating an ambush, the melee types headed upstairs while Virgil decided to hide in a corner until the fighting was over. Unfortunately, he chose the worst corner in the whole building and got full-round sneak attacked. As a min-maxed character who decided to ignore AC, he took all 4 hits for 4d8+4 plus 12d6 sneak attack.** spoiler omitted **
Oh, I don't know. Killing the occasional PC from time to time keeps 'em on their toes. Gives them that sense of real jeopardy that would otherwise be lacking. My players would be problematic for someone who wasn't willing to kill their characters. Of course, they're also a bunch of savages.
And killing a min-maxed PC can sometimes make a player reconsider their misguided ways.|
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Who: Shiro Satsu
Cleric of Nethys 9 ("The Good Cleric")
Catalyst: Being in melee after being shot a whole bunch of times.
Where/When: The abandoned Shoanti Camp/Village on the Northeastern Shore of Korvosa.
The party just finished up the Vivified Labyrinth, and with some creativity and use of Command Undead, stole all 4 of the Rajput Ambari from the machinery rooms down below.
Using various means, and a conveniently placed skiff, they left after disguising themselves as Grey Maidens (total of 8 of them, the same # as a normal patrol of Maidens in ships, as I saw it. This worked out quite nicely)
Since the undead elephants were underwater and needed a fairly shallow area to enter onto the land, the closest point was the Shoanti Village a mile or so upriver from the cove's exit. On leaving the water, I rolled a random encounter (another Grey Maiden patrol), who nat-20's the perception check to note large undead elephants coming from the water. They call for aid from the nearest "allies" they can see, being the PC's in their boat, and combat ensues from the rogue's rifle shot.
Several concentrated volley's of arrow fire later (a sorcerer with the group provided some Haste buffing) and the Wizard is in the water, hiding from arrows. Next obvious threat is the healing cleric in light armor, moving towards the Lieutenant of the group. Lots of arrow fire and a full attack from the Lt. and Shiro is down and dead at -27 hp.
The battle was soon won, and with some stealthy re-insertion, the party manages to get loot sold, buy a scroll of reincarnate, and has it UMD'd to bring the cleric back as a Halfling.
gotta love those Grey Maidens!
-t
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Name of PC: Samuel
Class/Level: Monk 10
Adventure: A History of Ashes
Catalyst: Hill giant ambush
Story: The party were travelling from Harse to Kaer Maga, and set up camp in a natural dip in the ground to shelter from the strong winds blowing across the plains. During the night, the ranger (on watch) heard low voices and saw large figures moving around in the distance, and was able to wake some of the group before the gang of hill giants started throwing boulders from the hillside above.
While the others either moved cautiously up the hill, or took cover to fire spells or projectiles at the giants, Samuel sprinted forward to engage a couple of the hill giants in hand to hand combat, not even waiting to have mage armour cast on him. A couple of solid greatclub hits in the first round of melee weren't enough to make him withdraw, and two hits in the next round, including a critical, put him down for good.
The party had survived all the challenges of the first three adventures in the campaign with just a couple of close calls, then suffered its first proper PC death* to a random encounter I only threw in to highlight the increasing lawlessness in the countryside surrounding Korvosa since the trouble in the city itself.
* Long story...
Name of PC: Zarinakal
Class/Level: Wiz15
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Catalyst: Carelessness, maybe even stupidity
After fighting a number of battles with Sergimatto, the PCs eventually end up with the book and contract. Though they've seen Sergimatto go etheral, teleport, and ambush them multiple times; Zarinakal decides to take the book and contract to the Acadame for research by himself while the rest of the PCs go to meet the Field Marshal.
Walking by himself on Korvosa's city streets, the ethereally-following Sergimatto pops back into the material plane. Zarinakal loses initiative and is quickly tongue-entangled and then constricted to death. "That was dumb" the last words to escape his lips.
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Three "Deaths" to share. Although that spirit blessing saved their lives, I count them as deaths.
Who: Kura, Cleric of Nethys 12
Where: In the Star Tower
Adventure: Skeletons of Scarwall
Catalyst: Nat-1's and Wail of the Banshee
The Demilich has taken all sorts of ouchy from the rifle-wielding rogue/fighter, in about 1.5 rounds. He flies to the center of the room, dropping the Wail to affect the entire party.
The only one to fail her save is Kura, the evil cleric of Nethys. The Spirit Blessing saves her life, leaving her stunned.
Who: Clint, Fighter/Rogue 13
Where: In the Star Tower
Adventure: Skeletons of Scarwall
Catalyst: Doing all sorts of damage to Ildervok the Nightwing.
With an incredible amount of damage output from both the Wizard and Rogue in this fight, Ildervok had to chose who would be Finger of Death'ed. The Wizard solved that issue by hiding behind a pillar, leaving the rogue out in the open. He failed his fort save, taking 170 damage, and dying, only to have the Spirit Blessing save his bullet slinging butt.
Who: Sam, Fighter 13
Where: In the tunnels beneath Scarwall
Adventure: Skeletons of Scarwall
Catalyst: Full attacks from Gugs, who are only hitting on 17+.
The fighter rightfully assumes she will be fine when engaging the monstrous Gugs in melee. After all, she has something like a 38 or 39 AC. Wouldn't you know that I roll a 20/20 Critical hit, and pull the Decapitation card from the deck? One failed Fort save later, and the Gug is very confused; he could have sworn he pulled her head off, but its still attached and she's weaving around all funny like. The others could not capitalize on the the stun effect, and died to fire, bullets, and mind-wielded hammers shortly thereafter.
Bring on Kleestad!!!!!!
-t
Name of PC: Vencarlo Orsini
Class/Level: Ftr5/Rog1/Duelist 6
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Catalyst: Unholy Blights
After battling the boggard's on level 2 the PCs were a little beat up so Ileosa sent her Furies after them. Alternately appearances at either end of the dry hallway, the party was hit by several unholy blights as they ran back and forth. Eventually the Furies are wounded enough that they flee.
Having several potent spells up, the PCs decide they should quickly press on. They swim up the water filled shaft to the third level but are dismayed to find a nearly transparent portcullis sealing it off (minor image). Even more troubling is that the Furies are there and waiting for them.
Before a passwall can be created to get by the illusion, the party is hit with several more unholy blights. Vencarlo dies before he can escape. His body floating back down the shaft.
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Name of PC: Zarinikal
Class/Level: Wiz15
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Catalyst: Having no healing
The PCs have escaped the water-filled shaft and are battling all four Furies on the third level. Sick to death of the unholy blights, the party splits up so they can't all be hit.
Zarinikal, with only 1 hit point, runs off to the eastern passage and is safe there since the Furies are fighting others. Poor Zarinikal has no healing and so spends three rounds hiding, unable to do anything.
Meanwhile, Ivan, the party rogue is going 1 on 1 with a Fury and losing. To escape, he takes off running....and winds up right next to Zarinkal. The Fury is in close pursuit, cackles with glee, and drops yet another Unholy Blight on the two hapless PCs. Zarinikal misses her save and dies.
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Just started CotCT last night and already one fatality.
Name of PC: Wolfom
Class/Level: Barbarian 1
Adventure: Edge of Anarchy
Catalyst: Gator Bait
Story: The party has readied themselves on the underpier for a confrontation with Gaedrinn. Wolfom kicks open the door and initiative is rolled. The party’s ranger gets the higher initiative and runs forward to engage, causing the rickety pier to fall apart under himself and the barbarian. The ranger makes his save and leaps back to safety but Wolfom plummets into the shark infested waters below. After being nipped at by the hungry jigsaw shark, Wolfom disengages and swims into the underbelly of the old fishery. Pulling himself through some loose boards and thick mud, Wolfom finds himself laying in the shallow water in front of an enraged alligator who promptly chomps on the meaty morsel. Down to 0 hp, Wolfom rages, saving himself from unconsciousness and strikes at Gobbleguts … missing wildly. Instead of passing out, the barbarian has taunted the Alligator into chomping on him again, with deadly results.
RIP Wolfom, you shall be remembered, and you have been avenged.
He was avenged. Remember the part where we killed the gater and Lamm? Good times, good times.
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Sadly, this will likely be my last Obit post. My players characters just got their hands on the HDoMT, so they are all crazy badass now.
But...
Where: In the Royal Bedroom of Castle Korvosa
Catalyst: Togomor + Sermignatto = squished wizard
Who: Carson, level 14 Diviner
The party has cleared all but the last few rooms of Castle Korvosa and are half-way done with Crown of Fangs. Then, they encounter Togomor and Sermignatto in the room behind the stage.
I was going to have a surprise, theres a devil, kind of encounter, but the rogue had to shoot through the curtain concealing the peephole and show to the enemies the party was around.
So, some stone-shaping later and there's a nice 5' wide hole to get through, the wizard casts Antimagic Field and moves up next to the enemy wizard (dropping his possession and making him very grateful) and winking out the horned devil that had been summoned.
He then takes a whole lot of damage from Sermignatto and is grappled, which he can do nothing about, being in the Anti-Magic Field and all. Next round, he drops the AMF, getting beaten into a bloody pulp afterwards, and dropped to -37hp or so.
Dead wizard, but the clerics manage to zap him with a Breath of Life spell, bringing him back to the living.
Still, I'm counting it, since he was dead and very con-damaged!
-t
Sadly, this will likely be my last Obit post. My players characters just got their hands on the HDoMT, so they are all crazy badass now.
But...
Where: In the Royal Bedroom of Castle Korvosa
Catalyst: Togomor + Sermignatto = squished wizard
Who: Carson, level 14 DivinerThe party has cleared all but the last few rooms of Castle Korvosa and are half-way done with Crown of Fangs. Then, they encounter Togomor and Sermignatto in the room behind the stage.
I was going to have a surprise, theres a devil, kind of encounter, but the rogue had to shoot through the curtain concealing the peephole and show to the enemies the party was around.
So, some stone-shaping later and there's a nice 5' wide hole to get through, the wizard casts Antimagic Field and moves up next to the enemy wizard (dropping his possession and making him very grateful) and winking out the horned devil that had been summoned.
He then takes a whole lot of damage from Sermignatto and is grappled, which he can do nothing about, being in the Anti-Magic Field and all. Next round, he drops the AMF, getting beaten into a bloody pulp afterwards, and dropped to -37hp or so.
Dead wizard, but the clerics manage to zap him with a Breath of Life spell, bringing him back to the living.
Still, I'm counting it, since he was dead and very con-damaged!
-t
Dead is dead, temporary or otherwise.
If it is of concern, there are a bevy of magnificent templates on can apply to the remaining baddies ahead of them in the AP. I suggest Dreadnaught. ^_^
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Last night had our first (near) TPK:
Character: Max the Shoanti
Class/Level: Barbarian 3
Adventure: Edge of Anarchy (Dead Warrens)
Catalyst: Mauled to death by an Owlbear Skeleton
Character: Cyril the Half-Elf
Class/Level: Ranger 3
Adventure: Edge of Anarchy (Dead Warrens)
Catalyst: Mauled to death by an Owlbear Skeleton
Character: Gurei the Tiefling
Class/Level: Monk 3
Adventure: Edge of Anarchy (Dead Warrens)
Catalyst: Mauled to death by an Owlbear Skeleton
Character: Tanoff the Dwarf
Class/Level: Fighter 2
Adventure: Edge of Anarchy (Dead Warrens)
Catalyst: Mauled to death by an Owlbear Skeleton
The party entered the Dead Warrens, with a couple members slightly under max HP from a previous encounter but not too bad off, and were almost immediately assaulted by Rolth’s skeletal guardians. Cyril, the first to act, charged towards one group while the rest of the party pulled into formation to hold off the undead. Max raged, and the extra staying power that it gave him wasn’t as important as the AC that he lost in doing so. Several rounds later Max was bled to death while the fight raged on around him. Cyril stood toe-to-toe with an owlbear skeleton using his longsword/shortsword two-weapon fighting technique. Blows were traded back and forth but it was Cyril who came up lacking in the HP department. Seeing the writing on the wall, the only survivor (Simon the Wizard) began to edge his way out of the crypt while ineffectually firing his magic crossbow and the Damage Resistant skele’s. Taking a cue from the wizard, Gurei started edging towards the exit as well, but now that Max was down, the owlbear could turn his attention to the tiefling and clawed him to ribbons. Simon decided that the fight was a lost cause and fled, leaving Tanoff alone in the center of the room, surrounded by skeletons. Tanoff managed to kill off one of the owlbears before he was torn to stringy dwarf shreds.
My first PC death in CotCT happened last night.
Who: Moe, Half-Orc Fighter 5
Module: Seven Days
Where: Hospice of the Blessed Maiden
How:
The group had managed to bluff their way into the hospice by using a previously-looted disguise kit and their extensive knowledge of how the Blood Veil looked to have Moe be 'diseased'. The other three all signed agreements to be allowed to visit with their friend (the one cleric to 'assist the sick'). However, their weapons were (mostly) confiscated and put in a cabinet (no need in the sick ward after all), and Moe's breastplate was removed to better treat him. After seeing the kind of things going on in the cramped sick room, Moe pulls himself under the blanket, wipes of the makeup, and declares "I've been cured! You guys are amazing!"
Well, one of the watchers make a sense motive check, and order the group to leave immediately. Moe claims he's just getting his stuff. Maiden says it'll be brought out to them. Moe continues to move, and gets a pair of arrows for the effort. Cue initiative...the party (being in the middle of the room) is quickly surrounded by the 4 physicians and 2 maidens. Moe decides that his Mobility feat will do the job, and pushes past three of the (flanking) physicians to try to get his axe. Three straight sneak attacks later, he's dead on the ground.
Sad part is, he was dropped to -15 with the damage. His normal Con is 14...but he still had damage from his most recent (4th) time with the Veil, and was down 5 hp from that...so really, it was the Veil that killed him.
The rest of the party beat a hasty retreat...leaving Moe's body behind, as well as their equipment.
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Another bout of PC deaths from our campaign, this time in the Carowyn Manor. Both characters used action points to remain almost dead, but since they were dead by numbers, I’m posting it.
Character: Taviri, Cleric of Zon-Kuthon
Class/Level: Cleric 4
Adventure: Seven Days
Catalyst: Sneak attack crossbow bolt.
In the first round of the fight, a zombie rushed Taviri and critically broke his back (Yay! Critical Hit Deck). Deciding it would be prudent to control the undead, Taviri commanded them in the name of Zon-Kuthon. Unfortunately, the zombie’s current owner didn’t take too kindly to that and one near maxed out sneak attack shot nailed Taviri’s head to the front door.
Character: Simon the Conjurer
Class/Level: Wizard 4
Adventure: Seven Days
Catalyst: Zombie curb-stomped
After a long, drawn out fight Simon had been whittled down from zombie slams and was knocked bleeding and unconscious. Lionel the Paladin rushed over and healed him, only to watch the zombie critically stomp the life out of Simon’s healed head.
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And now for some underwater hijinks.
Character: Waulcoul
Class/Level: Rogue 5
Adventure: Seven Days
Catalyst: Yvicca
Pretty straight forward kill on this one. Waulcoul had been bitten a couple of times by the Yvicca’s summoned shark when the sea hag moved in for the kill. Two spear attacks brought him to 1 hp and a crit from the natural claw attack with a 3x damage card from the critical hit deck tore Waulcoul down.
And now for some underwater hijinks.
Character: Waulcoul
Class/Level: Rogue 5
Adventure: Seven Days
Catalyst: YviccaPretty straight forward kill on this one. Waulcoul had been bitten a couple of times by the Yvicca’s summoned shark when the sea hag moved in for the kill. Two spear attacks brought him to 1 hp and a crit from the natural claw attack with a 3x damage card from the critical hit deck tore Waulcoul down.
Oh dear Gods, I had no clue...yeesh...and to think I was moving that day, wish I could have made it to save him...
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Looking over all the player deaths I'm racking up here. Jeesh.
Character: Taviri, Cleric of Zon-Kuthon
Class/Level: Cleric 5
Adventure: Seven Days
Catalyst: Rolth/Clerics of Urgathoa
Character: Thoramer the Dwarf
Class/Level: Rouge 5
Adventure: Seven Days
Catalyst: Rolth/Clerics of Urgathoa
Having set off the alarm in the Temple of Urgathoa, the group finally crosses swords with a horde of opponents in the Plague Vats. A room crossing jump from the monk help off Rolth for a couple of turns, but by the time he got a free chance to start blasting spells, nearly everyone in the group had put themselves in a straight line. One lightning bolt later, and two members had dropped. The next turn, Taviri and Thoramer were forced to spend an action point to stay alive when Channel Negative from the temple's clerics sent them packing.
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Even more kills for Zasz. My poor, poor players...
Character: Ravan the Tiefling
Class/Level: Monk 6
Adventure: Seven Days
Catalyst: Daughter of Urgathoa
Character: Simon the Conjurer
Class/Level: Wizard 5
Adventure: Seven Days
Catalyst: Daughter of Urgathoa
Charatcer: Taviri, Cleric of Zon-Kuthon
Class/Level: Cleric 5
Adventure: Seven Days
Catalyst: Daughter of Urgathoa
The group was forced this session to face off against the end of the Temple of Urgathoa without the aid of the Paladin. They killed off Lady Andesain without too much effort, but the Daughter of Urgathoa was another matter. Two turns took out Ravan, who slowly bled to death from his wounds. An attack of opportunity against a running Simon did in the only member to have survived up to this point from the original party. And a "Sever Spine" card from the critical hit deck not only took Taviri to below dead, but it cut him in half in the process.
Taviri Update: After being put back together and raised, Taviri is a true paragon of Zon-Kuthon as he is now missing an eye, missing a hand, and walking with a crooked limp from being cut in half.
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First PC death of the campaign happened last weekend.
Name of PC: Voharius
Class/Level: Elven Cleric 7 of Sarenrae
Adventure: Escape From Old Korvossa
Catalyst: A pissed-off axe-weilding gnome.
Story: After the group earned Pilts' approval by way of an unorthodox strategy during the Blood Pig bout(shoving the other team down their goal was only part of it), the crew was still on edge as they were invited inside to meet with Salvatore.
After Salvatore had been retrieved, and having seen Jabbyr's trophy collection, the party knew there was no way they could leave Pilts in power. It was going to come to blows sooner or later. And as Salvatore was obviously nervous about saying who he had handed PERSON OF INTEREST HERE to _________ in front of Pilts, our hot-blooded gnomish sorcerer and human fighter were on the edge of jumping Pilts then and there, and it showed. Chaos ensued.
Pilts slammed confusion on everyone in the room, and poor Vo was left bonking himself on the head with the doorway to his back. Jabbyr was in the hallway behind him. And the only way Jabbyr could get into the fracas within was to go through Vo.
And he did. One axe strike to the back, and then a leaping, critical-confirming follow-up strike that chopped through the elven priest's shoulder all the way to his heart. Dead instantly at -22 hp.
His running crew got swift vengeance as Sarz the sorcerer fried Jabbyr where he stood with his own critting scorching rays and Boggs sliced open Pilt's neck as the "emperor" retreated.
Oh, and the entire room was full of 600 large butterflies at the time. Yeah...
Things quickly calmed as everyone took in the shock of the cleric's death. Then they realized Laori herself was a priestess. She immediately went to work sewing Vo's wound shut for easy(real: less messy) transportation and got the hell out of Dodge. They're currently rushing to find a safe place to keep Savatore and trying to locate the party rogue's fence in order to get what Laori needs to bring their homeboy back.
It should be noted that thanks to Vo's efforts, not one pig died during the Blood Pig match.
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The party-hate continues this session. Maybe it's just that fate wants the players to die in horribly agonizing ways, or maybe they need better tactics and backup.
Charatcer: Taviri, Cleric of Zon-Kuthon
Class/Level: Cleric 7
Adventure: Escape
Catalyst: Fiery Mantis Doom
While searching through a certain swordmaster's house, Taviri decided to rest his aching back by sitting on one of the couches in front of the fire. (One has to question his devotion to Zon-Kuthon if he's resting an ache at all.) While half the group heads upstairs to check it out and the other half goes back to the entrance to convince the large flying mount that its a good idea to squeeze into the tiny house, Taviri just relaxes. At least he relaxes until a pair of Red Mantis Assassins drop in to say hello. Between an explosive fireplace and love from two assassins, Taviri is just another flaming corpse on the floor.
Or would be if he didn't use an action point.
Taviri Update: After his latest near-death experience, Taviri's missing eye, animated hand (he got his missing one replaced), and crooked back are now matched with full-body burn scars. Zon-Kuthon would be so proud if Taviri had actually done any of it to himself.
First death in our CotCT campaign, yeah!
Name of PC: Jophiela von Friess
Class/Level: Paladin 7
Adventure: Seven Days to the Grave
Catalyst: Lady Andaisin
Story: A critical slay living in the first round of the final fight. It was also the last action of the gothic beauty. We are using the Critical Hit Deck and my players continued my lucky roll rolling three crits in a row. The first one dazed her and so they chopped her to pieces in the first two rounds.
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Name of PC: Korpi
Class/Level: Rogue 5 (it's a party of 7 so I held them back a level)
Adventure: Seven Days to the Grave
Catalyst: Rolth
Story: The party had really come to hate Rolth so when they found him they charged straight in. One of the priests landed a meaty blow with his scythe on poor Korpi and Rolth followed that with an Ice Storm which caught the whole party. Korpi failed his save and dropped to -14.
And when they bring him back from the dead, there's still the slight issue of the wererat bite that he failed his save against...
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Name of PC: Garum
Class/Level: Rogue 2/Fighter 1
Adventure: Between Edge of Anarchy and Seven Days
Catalyst: Vengeful Derro warrior
Story: The group has descended into the Vaults in search of the missing father of the party's paladin. They have learned that the derro have been capturing lycanthropes and dragging them away. After finding the lair, the group moves in and eventually finds the laboratory where the derro are performing their experiments.
The first engagement with the derro in that room was a draw, the party withdrawing quickly to remap their strategy. They moved back in and engaged the derro again, though this time it was only half the force at first. After they were dispatched, the group tried to seek out the other two where, alas Garum triggered a trap that dropped a bunch of stone on his head. That triggered the other two derro; a fighter and a sorcerer; to spring out of their secret room and attack. Shortly after the start of the fight, Garum moved in to engage the fighter. Both derro were irate that he had survived the first encounter, but the sorcerer struck first and charmed the rogue. He was ordered to protect the doorway and let nobody pass.
It was only after he failed another saving throw against the party cleric's Command that things truly went in the sewer for poor Garum. He left the doorway, and the fighter seized his chance. Springing out of the room, using his mobility to evade the attacks of Garum's companions in search of the rogue. He caught him, and with a vicious critical blow drove his sword into the dwarf's lung. (Critical deck card - Punctured Lung. Dc20 fortitude save or after 3 rounds begin drowning). Sadly, it was not the day for the gods to smile upon poor Garum, as he expended the next 30 seconds futilely trying to let his wound clot. Despite the best efforts of his companions, who lacked a healer's kit but still tried to staunch the wound, it was not meant to be. Garum expired with a wet gurgling noise as the derro sorcerer fled past the stunned companions who were blinking off the effects of a color spray.
Vengeance came shortly after fortunately, courtesy of a grease, a tanglefoot bag and a lot of luck.
Name of PC: Noah
Class/Level: Elf Sorcerer 6/cleric 3/theurge of Nethys 3
Ruleset: 3.5
Adventure: Skeletons of Scarwall
Catalyst: Nihil
My party: Noah, Noctumbra (Arcane Trickster), Fahleena (Cleric of Calistria), Venark (shoanti Barbarian) and Vivian (aasimar ranger/bard).
Story: The group head back to the heights, and face Nihil, who is hiding (Improved Invis) within her devil servitors. She did not need them. One Blasphemy, one Horrid Wilting and one Chain Lightning later, Noah is down. Malatrothe have taken his soul- PCs will can free his soul and raise Noah.
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Name of PC: Tuan
Class/Level: Monk 7
Adventure: Escape From Old Korvosa
Catalyst: Fighting two fungal guardians on his own.
Story: The party were heading down toward the Vivified Labyrinth and were in the upper caves. The fungal guardians were invisible and breathed when the monk and rogue got near. The rogue ran off leaving the monk to fight two of them. On round 1 the guardians landed every attack and dropped Tuan to -14.
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Name of PC:Strask Kazorgern
Class/Level: Sorcerer 6
Adventure:Seven Days to the Grave
Catalyst:Got too close to melee.
Story:The party was finishing up the dungeon at the end of seven days. They were greeted by Rolth who'd set up in that part of the dungeon. This PC was hit by a Vampiric Touch causing him to drop. The rest of the PCs moved to the other side of the room, a nearby enemy cleric simply Coup de Gras'd him. The Opera of Korvosa (thanks to Mikaze) will sorely miss him.
Name of PC:Neloodan
Class/Level: Wizard 3/Cleric 3
Adventure:Seven Days to the Grave
Catalyst:Fighting Andaisin
Story:Andaisin moved in and cast Slay Living on him. Unfortunately I rolled high and he droped but wasn't killed. The following round his body was hit by a Channel Negative Energy. He didn't feel a thing, and luckily the player wasn't too attached as his previous character had died earlier in the evening.
Name of PC:Krog the Half-Orc
Class/Level: Rog 3/Barbarian 2/Fighter 1
Adventure:Seven Days to the Grave
Catalyst:Fighting Andaisin
Story:Krog was a toughie, the fight immediately swung in Andaisin's favor after she took out Neloodan. The following round she took to the air and rained negative energy on the party. No one in the party was prepared for a flying opponent underground and were forced to use ranged attacks. They tried to run away, but a Greater Command spell brought two members back. He died heroicly trying to save his comrades. His death saved four other people!
It was overall a fun session despite the deaths.
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Name of PC: Tad Dangerous
Class/Level: Cleric 4
Adventure: Seven Days to the Grave
Catalyst: Critical spear from Yvicca
Story: The party has followed its hunch and, while still 4th level, bought the scroll of waterbreathing to go investigate the sunken Direption. Yvicca and Skinshear engaged them, beginning a fairly impressive battle.
Tad was knocked unconscious at one point. Yvicca moved past to engage the Martin the paladin who was smiting her. A healing potion administered to Tad returned him to consciousness right there beneath/beside Yvicca. Tad failed miserably to bluff her into believing he was still unconscious. The hag levied two attacks into the paladin to render him unconscious, and jabbed her last attack into the poor cleric. The blow turned out to be way more precise than she intended, bringing an end to the adventurous life of Tad Dangerous.
Name of PC: Bargo
Class/Level: Half-Orc Barbarian 1 / Rogue 2
Adventure: Edge of Anarchy
Catalyst: Lesser Necrophidius Paralysis
Story: The party looking for Gaekhen's body in the Dead Warrens
The party had entered the corridor of skulls, sadly not managing to avoid the Acid Spray trap. After being engaged by the three lesser Necrophidius, things were going well for the party, since the Necrophidius in general were almost unable to hit the AC of most party members. Sadly for our soon to be deceased Rogue, one Necrophidius finally managed to roll high enough and Bargo missed his fortitude save.
Even with the heroic efforts of his party members to kill the Necrophidius before it could take its next action, it wasn't enough and a Coup de Grace finished Bargos life, when the Necrophidius tore out his throat.
The group retreated and managed to get Bargo raised at the temple of Saranrae. Still, it continued not be his best day, since shortly afterwards he got blinded by Vreeg and afterwards poisoned by Blue Whinnis poison. Yet he endured and should get his second permanent negative level removed one week hence in game time.
Name of PC: Aiden Wolfcrest
Class/Level: Tiefling Witch5/Fighter1
Adventure: Seven Days to the Grave
Catalyst: Rolth being more dangerous than expected
Story: The raid on the temple of Urgathoa.
The party, having begun their raid on the compound and alerted the defenders, met most of their forces in the blood vat room. A bunch of negative energy channels took care of most of the low-hp priests of Urgathoa, but the party, struggling out of an ice storm he placed in the room to draw them out, inadvertently put themselves in lightning bolt formation directly in front of Rolth. One 25 damage roll brought Aiden to exactly negative his Con score.
Right afterwards, the monk, Liam, Aiden's brother, ignored all danger and charged Rolth, grappled him, and the inquisitor crit him from 1/5th health to -7. The monk used his first flurry of blows attack in the next round on the unconscious Rolth, punching in his face like an old pumpkin. Good riddance!
Also note: The necromancer cleric gave his fast zombie (Girrigz the wererat in human form, reanimated to serve after death) the flask of curses that R. Davaulus had. The party all stood way, way back in the Princess's Bacchanal. Their first action in combat was to have a skeleton from a robe of bones kick open the door, and have Girrigz the zombie run forward and unstop the flask, cursing pretty much everyone in the entire room... good stuff!
Name of PC: Swift Raelia the Edge, Liberator of Dragons and Chief Rescue Ranger
Class/Level: Bard 10
Adventure: History of Ashes
Catalyst: Father Dale's Cinnabar
Story: The party engaged Cinnabar at the battle of Flameford Camp. Cinnabar turned invisible and moved around the party to ambush the wizard in the back-- one of the Red Mantis moved with her, staying 10ft. away to avoid Faerie Fire. Raelia immediately charged into flank. Cinnabar took a five foot step and full-attacked her for 91 damage, dropping her to -26 and dead.
She was immediately brought back with a breath of life, and since Cinnabar had resurrection sense, she took another swing at her and almost got her again. : )
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I've actually wracked up a fair amount of PC kills in this campaign.
Seven Days to the Grave
Who: Elf Ninja
Catalyst: Lady Andaisan's Slay Living. Yeah kind of cheap but hey there it is. The Temple of Urgathoa came very close to TPK in the battle with Rolth. After Andaisan rose up as a Daughter the party carrying their dead comrade bugged out. Alas they left Rolth's body intact... heh heh..
History of Ashes
Who: Human Wizard
Catalyst: Ambushed by Red Mantis assassins who then won the initiative in the following round. Snikt, snikt went the sawtooth sabres
Skeletons of Scarwall
Who: Elf Ninja, again. Random encounter with a hydra crossing the hold of Belkzen(which apparently is the land of monsters from greek mythology in this campaign. Never a good idea to stand next to one.
Who: Varisian Bard. Bellshallam's breath weapon. Not quite able to get negotiations with the cursed dragon off to a good start...
Who: Shoanti Cleric.
Catalyst: Kleestad's breath weapon 2nd time round. Classic doctor's dilemma: heal the fighter or yourself? She did the heroic thing but paid the price.
Now finally starting the last book so we'll see how much more PC death is to come...