My group and I are greatly enjoying this marvelous AP, and we are halfway through. I wanted to post a thread to enjoy some memorable and almost lethal moments. I personally consider a success when the players ALMOST die and surivie just barely through determination or luck.
BURNT OFFERINGS:
Catacombs of wrath> The Vargouille paralyzed the paladin and the rogue, then with an OPEN die roll I decided who it would kiss. It was the paladin, who saved succesfully, the rogue with a save 5 points lower would have been in trouble.
Thistletop bridge> Sensing a trap, the heavy paladin strapped a long rope on his waist before crossing the bridge on Thisletop, as he was the third to go, the bridge promptly collapsed. I allowed him a reflex save and he grabbed onto the bridge. Beign tied to the other side, I allowed him one big STR check each round to hold the whole bridge until the rogue tied a rope to the other side and the sorceress came and tied him at the waist. After two successful DC20 str checks, he let go and ends up tied on the middle. A 50' rope strapping him to the start and a 15' rope to the end. He cut the 50' rope and only smashed his face on the cliffside. But he may have saved the rest of the guys from a nasty fall to the sea.
Under thistletop> The fighter and the wizard bodyguards were ambushed on the same room. The paladin uses to "detect evil" through the door before the party smashes and enters, but in front of him was only the fighter, who was neutral. Of course the party wins initiative and the rogue runs fast to try and sneak attack him, but the ready wizard magic missiles him from the corner and he fails to hit the high AC of the READY fighter, who almost kills him with his bastard sword.
Lower level> The twin Karzoug statues stand on each side of the corridor. For no reason at all, the cleric decides to jump the space between them. The rest of the party walks. The statues almost make mincemeat of the paladin and he doesn't fall to the pit because the rogue saves a reflex check to grab him
Deadly Barghest> A very lucky search check from the rogue revealed the hidden door and they made it into the barghest chamber.
The fight was really brutal, my party WOULDNT quit even if I was shredding them to pieces. The barghest was slowly worn down and dealing damage equally to all present. When my almost dead, potion empty players sounded the retreat. When they turned around they saw a raging mad creature trapped by an invisible barrier. With a wicked smile they rained projectiles and spells on the unfortunate beast who collapsed dead.
SKINSAW MURDERS
Foxglove Manor>
The rogue failed his will save and tried to kill himself with a dagger. He was very lucky on the damage roll so the Fortitude check to stay alive was only 17, he made it barely. A while later he failed against another haunt and hurled himself through the window, but saved the reflex to grab onto the roof.
Travel to magnimar> (hilarious double-double crossing)
The party split for this travel (some players missed the session) and the rogue went alone with a caravan, but one criminal from sandpoint secretely hired the evil rogue to murder one merchand lord who travelled on a personal wagon with his fighter bodyguard.
The caravan is ambushed by robbers and the rogue slays the leader in single combat. After that the guards promt him to go check that the Lord mechant is safe. When he arrives, he finds the bodyguard fending off two robbers. As there are no live caravan guards on sight, he SNEAKS ATTACK the bodyguard (flanked by the robber), but he fails miserably and the bodyguard hits him reflexively. The guy attempts a BLUFF check to say that he didn't recognize the bodyguard and makes a VERY good check, so the bodyguard buys it and they fight the robbers.
The bodyguard kills one robber, and the rogue shouts that he will check the Lord is safe. He opens the caravan and the lord is there, so he attacks him and hits him, but rolls two 1's and hurts it for only 5 points, then attempts again the "I'm sorry, my mistake" bluff, but the Lord rolls a 20 and shouts for his bodyguard from help.
The bodyguard smashes our rogue over the head with his mace, but the remaining robber hurts the bodyguard. So the rogue turns around and uses the robber flanking to sneak attack and kill the bodyguard, but then with a very good roll, the Lord Merchant sinks a dagger on the rogues back. Raging mad, the rogue turns around and slashes the lord with his twin shortswords, rolling two d20 dice at the same time and rolls... TWO ONES. A 1 in 400 chance....
Then the robber sneak attacks our rogue (flanking with the Lord), dropping him to negative HP.
When he regain consiousness, the surviving caravan guards cure him and tell him that thanks to him killing the leader they routed the robbers, but even tough he OBIOUSLY fought almost to death to prevent it, they killed the Lord and his bodyguard before leaving.
foxglove impostor>
The cleric enters foxglove townhouse disguised as FOXGLOVE, in company of the sorceress. When they enter the manor they hear sound in the kitchen, and they open it to find a shocked IESHA who stares at TWO Foxgloves, they both start asking "who is this" when suddenly a shapeless humanoid monster appears to attack. My players automatically move between the "NPCs" and the monster and are VERY surprised when Iesha and Foxglove also shift and sneak attack them. The cleric was dropped to 8hp, but he grabbed the sorceress and using his Cheesy domain power teleports himself right outside the room, slams the door closed and casts stone shaping to meld the floor into the door. That gives him a couple of rounds to heal and, backs against the wall manage to defeat the shapeshifters.
Clocktower mayhem>
The Scarecrow was well hidden on the base's debris the paladin goes prodding with his sword and finds a huge golem that almost splits him in two with the scythe, after that the kill him easily
The falling bell>
It attacked the sorceress and, of course, the paladin. The sorceress ducked, but the paladin got smashed flat against the wall and just barely saved for reflex and held onto the stair (the fall would have finished him).
The bell rafters> A fight balanced on tight wood beams against two rogue shapeless stalkers... they ate a lot of sneak attacks there, and the rogue fell unconsious onto the bell below. I gave him 50/50 chances of rolling left and falling on the stairs or right and falling 150ft to his death. Coin flip and he fell on the stairs to everyone's relief.
Dreaded Xanesha>
It scared them to hell, I'll tell you. They opened with a dispel magic, misdirected at the demon image she had casted. The cleric saved against petrification (an almost certain death) and charged. He attacked for 31 and was confidently rolling for damage before processing my smiling "you miss" answer. The smile dropped from his face and they all started worrying. An empowered scorching ray from the sorceress bounced harmlessly against her SR, the paladin hurt her a little with his smite but she skewered him for 3/4 his Hp on the next attack. They were almost certainly doomed when the cleric (stocked with scrolls) managed to dispel most of her defenses and the sorcerer got through with an empowered ray of enfeeblement. A much less powerful Xanesha was pummeled within 3 Hp (really) of dying before she managed to escape.
Taking a page from some story hour I read, I left clues for her "hit" on the mayor so they ambushed her later and killed her
HOOK MOUNTAIN MASSACRE
Hookmaw appears> The -now quite powerful- party wasn’t having a very hard time with this adventure... they managed to sneak past most of the Ogres (with an appallingly low perception check, they never even had a chance) and into the top floor of Fort Rannick. They started from the dungeons and their confidence was high after easily overcoming Lucrecia
- This is too easy (commented the sorceress) after killing a couple of regular ogres.
After that, hookmaw opens a door to her left and hits her with all his might, rolling a 20. I rolled the damage first for suspense, the hit was a 36hp hit. If the crit confirmed, that meant 108hp and bye-bye sorceress. The ogre only needed a 12 to confirm, and on an open roll it rolled.... 11!.
Enter pappa Kreeg> In the middle of a tough fight with Dorella Kreeg and Hookmaw, the ogre leader bursts through the chapel door into the corridor on the back of the players. It promptly shreds to pieces the celestial dire wolf summoned by the cleric. The paladin attacks him for some respectable damage, but having a HUMAN BANE ogre hook, the brute hits him back dropping him to negatives (barely) after the usual maximized ray of enfeeblement and some coordinated attacks they manage to drop him, retaking the Fort.
You rat bastard!> At hook mountains, one of the first moves of the hag coven after beign attacked is a BALEFUL polymorf on the rogue, he gets turned into a RAT, but barely makes the will save to conserve his mind and we found no rule preventing him to use the sneak attack as a rodent, so he bited to death one of the hags. Later the ghost nymph restored him.
Deal with the Devil> The cleric promised the imprisoned Pit Fiend on skull Dam a swift death after winter, so he would have a couple of months to make peace with himself. The rogue used that time to go alone and deal with him.
They made a contract, where the fiend promised to deliver 50.000gp in silver ingots to the rogue, then leave the material plane for 100 years and not harm him or the party, directly or through minions ever..
The guy should have smelled a fish when the devil insisted to use SILVER and not gold.
They both sign the pact. The rogue breaks the circle and the freed devil says: "Your silver, as promised" and then banishes as the room goes dark.
After turning a light, the rogue finds that the corridor that lead to the chamber is COMPLETELY blocked with silver ingots. I thought I had him, but he REALLY had a "ring of sustenance" that kept him alive trough the arduous task of chipping his way out of a silver brick wall with a short sword. Also the cleric came 2 months later and helped him... hilarious.
Dragonfire> So many attempts to kill my players.... I figured, they are a very tough crew, but I still want to score me some deaths, so not only I upped the enemies using Joey's priceless recommendations, but I also raised Longtooth one full age category (young adult red dragon).
While the whole party was entretained, the rogue using fly and improved invisibility took on the dragon. That the dragon had used see invisibility was a nasty surprise, and I was booed and accused of metagaming, but one of our rules lawyers defended me, saying it's a cheap and very common buff.
The rogue hit the dragon for a measly 5hp, while the dragon critted him on a bite for 45hp, leaving him 20hp from death. The cleric dispelled the see invisibility and the dragon was subject to a couple of full sneak attacks for a LOT of damage. Couple it with some hits from the sorceress and he was stripped of half his Hp on a couple of rounds. The annoying flying rogue reflexed his way out of a fire brath that would have roasted and then the sorceress got lucky on her second attempt at a hold monster and froze the dragon. The rogue closed in for the kill and latched to the beasts neck. The next round was decisive.. a roll of 7 or more meant the dragon would shake free of the spell and eat the already hurt rogue....
OF course I made an open roll, thinking of scoring me a good PC death... until it stopped showing a cursed "2" on the topmost face. My dragon could only watch helplessly as he was finished by a measly 1.2m tall rogue with a tiny sword.
Magic CPR> The paladin was fending off 3 stone giants and in a round of full attacks -one of them a crit- they reduced him to canned beef. Luckily the cleric tought fast and used his recently prepared Breath of Life to snatch him from the reaper.