Council of Thieves Obituaries


Council of Thieves

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Tikael wrote:

Here are the totals:

--player deaths--
The bastards of Erebus: 4
The sixfold Trial: 12
What lies in Dust: 7
Infernal syndrome: 3
Mother of flies: 0
Twice damned prince: 0

total PC deaths: 26

--PC/Cohort/companion deaths--
The bastards of Erebus: 0
The sixfold Trial: 0
What lies in Dust: 0
Infernal syndrome: 3
Mother of flies: 0
Twice damned prince: 0

Total NPC deaths: 3

Most kills:
Total: Turin the mad with 5
PCs: Tikael with 4
NPCs: Turin the mad with 2

Pretty sure I counted all of them. I did not total up the cause of deaths but I'm sure the troll skeletons and the shadow triceratops are the only ones who have racked up multiple kills.

Tikael tasks me with the Most Character Deaths ... and I shall have it ... >:)

Did you count Max and the Lord Mayor getting fragged in the Infernal Syndrome? ^_^


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Yes, you have had 3 PC deaths and 2 NPC/Cohort deaths. Putting you at 5 posted deaths. Technically since one of my player deaths did not actually go through (he got to -11 and had a 12 Con, forgot that the summoned creature that knocked him down to that point had 4 extra Str from augment summoning.) we are tied for PC deaths. Did almost lose another player last night to the behir in the spiral though, we will see how they fair against Leibdaga next session.

I believe Cralius also has 3 notches on his belt in CoT so far.


Tikael wrote:

Yes, you have had 3 PC deaths and 2 NPC/Cohort deaths. Putting you at 5 posted deaths. Technically since one of my player deaths did not actually go through (he got to -11 and had a 12 Con, forgot that the summoned creature that knocked him down to that point had 4 extra Str from augment summoning.) we are tied for PC deaths. Did almost lose another player last night to the behir in the spiral though, we will see how they fair against Leibdaga next session.

I believe Cralius also has 3 notches on his belt in CoT so far.

The thing that I think will push you below his count is that I fear to even THINK of that module without the contract.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Yeah, it is going to go rough for his party down there. Now that I have more time I actually totaled up the deaths a little better.

The shadows in the knot, the troll skeletons during the play, and the triceratops skeleton in Delvehaven all have 3 deaths.
The helldogs and the outcast king both have two deaths.

Turin, was Max a PC? reading over it the first time I got the impression that he was a cohort. If he was a PC then you and I are tied at 4 PC deaths and you and Psionichamster are tied at 1 NPC death.

When I get home I will have plenty of time to actually upload the XML file I am working from. I will also have the time to fully plan out an ambush:

Spoiler:
The party left Alorim's body in the spiral, I had it picked up by Zol and the soul of a half fiend fire Oracle was drawn from hell and put into the body. With Zol (resist fire up, of course) keeping the party occupied the fire oracle will be blanketing the party with fire and doom. The party should not leave bodies lying around...

Shadow Lodge

Name:Drumbar Gonrin IV
Race:Dwarf
Classes/levels:Paladin 2
Adventure: The Bastards of Erebus
Location: Old Temple to Erasil, underground level
Catalyst: Abandoning any hope of stealth or surprise
The Gory Details: The slow penetrating exploration of a rot grub

Spoiler:

The Party bursts through the temple doors, cutting a swathe through the Tiefling guards stationed at the top level. They quickly retreat 'to the mummy', and a short battle is had there. Ostenso retreats, tanglefootin' the door behind him. The Party breaks it down in short order, only to find them face to face with some helldogs. Again, they are cut down pretty quickly, and this over confident party pushes forward. The next few corridors are surprisingly empty and quiet; Janiven urges caution in continuing.

Turning a corner, The Party's light sources grow unnaturally dim, and only Drumbar is able to see what awaits. Seven Tiefling rogues with readied crossbows, two 'mummies', and a horrifically clawed Tiefling snarl at the party, and launch their volleys. (Palaveen was there too, but invisibly observing the attack)

All shots miss the lucky dwarf. Despite the protests of the rest of the group, Drumbar charges in, cutting one of their number down. He's quickly swarmed by the rest and knocked out from combination of sneak attacks and magic missiles.

The party flees.

A short while later, Drumbar wakes to find Palaveen standing over him. He's bound, stripped, and the two 'mummy' sorcerers lear at him. Palaveen gives the signal and they both set to work with their enchantment magic (took 7 saves, but he finally failed vs. Charm Person). Palaveen then succeeded in co-ercing lots of information out of him regarding the Children of Westcown and their safehouse. When he gathered enough information, he went to a small jar on his shelves, and using a pair of long tweezers, placed a writhing rot grub on the poor dwarf's chest. In a matter of moments it burrowed into his heart, and the corpse was disposed above.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Here is a shot of the XML file I am working off of (here at work anyways)

I counted xdahnx's as a kill for Palaveen but really sounds more like a group effort.


Ghostalker wrote:
Tikael wrote:

Yes, you have had 3 PC deaths and 2 NPC/Cohort deaths. Putting you at 5 posted deaths. Technically since one of my player deaths did not actually go through (he got to -11 and had a 12 Con, forgot that the summoned creature that knocked him down to that point had 4 extra Str from augment summoning.) we are tied for PC deaths. Did almost lose another player last night to the behir in the spiral though, we will see how they fair against Leibdaga next session.

I believe Cralius also has 3 notches on his belt in CoT so far.

The thing that I think will push you below his count is that I fear to even THINK of that module without the contract.

Max is a "DMPC" in current parlance, however that translates into kill counts and the like.

Nosy Players Sod Off:
The most important NPC death in CoT as I read it is the death of the Lord Mayor, especially in the fashion that he bought the farm in my campaign. They are in for a very rude surprise with Vaccha.

With all the hints here, I shall be much more closely re-reading the module now that they don't have the contract. ^_^


Tikael wrote:

Here is a shot of the XML file I am working off of (here at work anyways)

I counted xdahnx's as a kill for Palaveen but really sounds more like a group effort.

I love that critter ... my grub o' doom ate Palaveen in my game though ... ^_^


No PC deaths yet, and we're into the third module :(
(though I'm eagerly awaiting the 'triceratops of doom')

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 4

Rakshaka wrote:

No PC deaths yet, and we're into the third module :(

(though I'm eagerly awaiting the 'triceratops of doom')

I'm still not sure how the fighter of all people got killed by phantasmal killer....

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Tikael wrote:

Yes, you have had 3 PC deaths and 2 NPC/Cohort deaths. Putting you at 5 posted deaths. Technically since one of my player deaths did not actually go through (he got to -11 and had a 12 Con, forgot that the summoned creature that knocked him down to that point had 4 extra Str from augment summoning.) we are tied for PC deaths. Did almost lose another player last night to the behir in the spiral though, we will see how they fair against Leibdaga next session.

I believe Cralius also has 3 notches on his belt in CoT so far.

I'm such a slacker. I have a near TPK (5 of 6) to post from January!!

I'll have to get to that in order for it to be recognized. ;)


Cralius the Dark wrote:
Tikael wrote:

Yes, you have had 3 PC deaths and 2 NPC/Cohort deaths. Putting you at 5 posted deaths. Technically since one of my player deaths did not actually go through (he got to -11 and had a 12 Con, forgot that the summoned creature that knocked him down to that point had 4 extra Str from augment summoning.) we are tied for PC deaths. Did almost lose another player last night to the behir in the spiral though, we will see how they fair against Leibdaga next session.

I believe Cralius also has 3 notches on his belt in CoT so far.

I'm such a slacker. I have a near TPK (5 of 6) to post from January!!

I'll have to get to that in order for it to be recognized. ;)

Get to steppin'! ^^


Well, I had a feeling this was going to happen when I read the monster's stat block, but here's our campaign's first death:

Name: Leonora "La Fiamma" Dioso, Female Half-Elven Cleric of Calistra 4/ Rogue 1
Module: "What Lies in Dust"
Location of Death: Aquarium room of Triceratops doom, Delvehaven
Cause of Death: Searing Darkness from Tricera-tron

Wow.. this monster is a veritable killing machine. Other than the somewhat low AC and lack of intelligence, this thing put my PC on the ropes, and half of them are pushing AC 25+. While a tense melee battle ensued which dropped the Dwarven monk into the negatives and caused the fighter/rogue to flee, a continual ranged barrage from the Wizard and La Fiamma whittled down the beast. Seeking solace in the hallway that seemed too small to fit the monster, they prepared to finish it off when the thing unleashed its ranged attack, striking down the already wounded cleric and sending her well beyond the threshold of death. The group fled the dungeon to pursue the somewhat difficult task of having their character raised, though not by the church of Asmodeus.

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16

Name: Marcel
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Bard 5
Adventure: Sixfold Trials
Location: Asmodean Knot
Catalyst: A poorly placed spell and a well placed crit.
The Gory Details: The party had entered the maze towards the end of the knot, when Sian cut off the alchemist from the rest of the party. Crazy melee ensues as the party does it's best to just get in the room!

By the time Marcel arrived, Sian decided it was a little too crowded, so she drank her last invisibility potion and leaped out over the pit. Levitate was already going, so she was going to drink her gaseous form potion next round and make a clean get-away.

My players NEVER let anyone get away. The alchemist drinks a potion of see invisibility and points out Sian. Marcel leaps out and makes a blind tackle to grapple (he gets lucky). The sorcerer moves up and casts fireburst (earth bloodline, acid damage). Sian saves and takes no damage, Marcel fails and takes 17 acid damage. Sian breaks the grapple (still invisibile), and Marcel starts falling. Marcel's turn- he keeps falling, whipping out a scroll of vampiric touch. Sian sees the nutty bard falling down on her location with a hand crackling in dark energy and opts to take the AoO on him. Crit. We use the Critical hit deck and I drew "eyepatch for you." Triple damage plus 1d2 con drain and -4 on perception checks. Plus sneak attack, since she was invisible.

Out of kindness, (and maybe to keep the bard alive), I let the vampiric touch go off, even though the bard was technically dead. Marcel did 6 damage. He would have been at -14 (with a con of 12) even with the instant healing from vampiric touch.

Dark Archive

Three sessions in and ive already racked up 4 PC deaths. So i figure it's time to post them up.

Death#1
Name: Shilo
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Monk1
Adventure: Bastards
Location: Sewers
Catalyst: Trying to save a dead NPC
The gory details This was my "special" encounter: A giant fiendish crocodile guarding a locked door. My plan was to eat Janiven and provide a hook for a between storyline adventure. The monster lunged out and grabbed Janiven, pulling her into his storm-water overflow pit. taking her below 0 in doing so. But.. my intrepid band of lvl one adventures jumped down after her. The second character to jump into the pit rolled a great jump check and followed that up with a confirmed critical with his mace. so i decided to croc would let go and recoil. after a round of trying to intimidate the players, and giving them a chance to leave, the croc fought back .. and well, he ate the monk without much trouble. The best part of this encounter was the lore Oracle seeing his sewer guide in the crocs mouth and about to die used his brain drain on Janiven and almost finished her off. Of course after this they did save Janiven. Lets just say it made for an occward conversation. Until the party's alchemist attacked the oracle...

death#2
Name: Zorg
Race: Half-Orc
Classes/levels: Alc1
Adventure: Bastards
Location: Sewers
Catalyst: Umm role-playing CN with a Charisma 7 and 9 wisdom
The gory details So this was total party combat but it was caused by tension from being lost, seeing a guy getting eaten by a crocodile and a oracle spouting off in a language no one could understand. So I'm gonna take credit. being unable communicate with the oracle and getting frustrated, the Alchemist decided to throw something to get his attention...and all he had was a fire bomb in hand! Combat broke out because of some background based relationships and the alchemist was left to rot in the sewer.

Not bad for a first night.

Dark Archive

Night 2. Two more players go down.

Death #3
Name: Tobin
Race: Halfling
Classes/levels: Rogue
Adventure: Bastards
Location: The Rescue
Catalyst: Getting shot off the top of a wagon by a Giant Xbow
The gory details The rather heroic rogue climbed atop the Hellknighs wagon to deal with the Giant Xbow but missed his first attack, missed his AoO as the gunner reloaded missed his second attack then got shot point blank for nearly max damage (15 points). His body fell from the wagon and he lay unconscious with a huge bolt stuck in his chest until Shanwen in desperation began to channel negative energy. Unfortunately for Tobin he was still 25 feet away from the Hellknight cleric.

Death #4
Name: Kala the Quagmire
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Bard
Adventure: Bastards
Location: The Rescue
Catalyst: Hellknights dont like violins
[b]The gory details [b]As the Hellknight Armigers engaged my party they each singled out a hero to fight. The Hellknight how picked the bard as his target was in a particularly bad mood. First the sundered the Violin the bard had begun to play, then the next round he cut down the minstrel with a near max damage crit. that was a bad round for the players as i rolled and confirmed 3 crits in succession. a few rounds later this Armiger was the last standing, cut off by a field of grease and faced with several approaching enemies delivered the death blow to a now stabilized bard. I think that Armiger might be the true bastard of this AP, of course they haven't meet Palaveen yet.

A timely player retreat saved any player deaths in the last session but Im sure i can rack up a few more before we finish the part 1.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Name: Darth
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Barbarian 1 / fighter 8
Adventure: Mother of Flies
Location: Bloody Tarn
Catalyst: four attacks of opportunity and a full attack from Madjaw.

The Gory Details: The party decided to get the giant beetle before visiting the bloody tarn, the party ranger was able to direct the beetle to bloody tarn with them. The party and Dog's Tongue came rolling in on Fhumghwa and as the redcaps began to emerge and assess the odd situation in front of them the parties rogue began a diplomacy check... he rolled a 2, for a total of 10. Not sure why the rogue with his +8 diplomacy decided that he was best to make this roll, needless to say it did not end well.

The Redcaps attacked and Madjaw emerged, the party fighter moved in to fight Madjaw. He was quickly piled on by four of the redcaps. He saw an opening in the crowd and charged through to take on madjaw, he was raging and charging, dropping his AC by 4. He also took a -4 to his AC for one of his feats (it lets him make extra attacks of opportunities, don't remember the feat's name) this left his AC at 17 for the round; he took 44 damage from the four redcaps attacks as he charged away. He then slammed into Madjaw and dealt a large chunk of the Satyr's HP. Madjaw went next and hit Darth with everything he had, dealing another 48 damage to Darth. This dropped Darth to -1 HP. He dropped unconscious and stopped raging, the loss in HP from ending rage ended up killing Darth.

I kind of feel bad that I have killed this player's characters 3 times in this campaign, then again deciding to take a -8 to your AC and provoke 4 Attacks of opportunity then stand next to a raging Satyr barbarian wielding a great axe is certainly an interesting tactical choice. Also the group very nearly killed off the redcaps and Fhumgwa in the fight so really was just a disaster all round.


Tikael wrote:


I kind of feel bad that I have killed this player's characters 3 times in this campaign, then again deciding to take a -8 to your AC and provoke 4 Attacks of opportunity then stand next to a raging Satyr barbarian wielding a great axe is certainly an interesting tactical choice.

Don't feel bad. Our cavalier committed to one-v-one combat with the satyr and was immediately crit for 76 damage, failed versus massive damage and died. It took a few minutes to find out what the real save for massive damage was (he made the actual save but failed the 3.5e save) and to get the GM to convince the cavalier we weren't using massive damage.

Madjaw is a player killer. The encounter gets people in 1v1 combat with him, and he's built to really hurt any PC he can hit. He's also chaotic neutral. Neutral enough to enjoying eating people! Like, cannibalizes them. Wouldn't want the players to get 2d6 from holy or smite bonuses. The entire combat is annoying.

Sczarni

Ice Titan wrote:
Tikael wrote:


I kind of feel bad that I have killed this player's characters 3 times in this campaign, then again deciding to take a -8 to your AC and provoke 4 Attacks of opportunity then stand next to a raging Satyr barbarian wielding a great axe is certainly an interesting tactical choice.

Don't feel bad. Our cavalier committed to one-v-one combat with the satyr and was immediately crit for 76 damage, failed versus massive damage and died. It took a few minutes to find out what the real save for massive damage was (he made the actual save but failed the 3.5e save) and to get the GM to convince the cavalier we weren't using massive damage.

Madjaw is a player killer. The encounter gets people in 1v1 combat with him, and he's built to really hurt any PC he can hit. He's also chaotic neutral. Neutral enough to enjoying eating people! Like, cannibalizes them. Wouldn't want the players to get 2d6 from holy or smite bonuses. The entire combat is annoying.

He almost one-shot-killed our Gnome Wizard, only failing because the Cleric had Close Wounds prepared (researched it on his downtime, since we're playing PF Core for the most part.)

As far as the CN alignment goes, I think that was an error (and think James Jacobs has said as much somewhere) and ruled him CE. Problem solved there, I think.

-t


psionichamster wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:
Tikael wrote:


I kind of feel bad that I have killed this player's characters 3 times in this campaign, then again deciding to take a -8 to your AC and provoke 4 Attacks of opportunity then stand next to a raging Satyr barbarian wielding a great axe is certainly an interesting tactical choice.

Don't feel bad. Our cavalier committed to one-v-one combat with the satyr and was immediately crit for 76 damage, failed versus massive damage and died. It took a few minutes to find out what the real save for massive damage was (he made the actual save but failed the 3.5e save) and to get the GM to convince the cavalier we weren't using massive damage.

Madjaw is a player killer. The encounter gets people in 1v1 combat with him, and he's built to really hurt any PC he can hit. He's also chaotic neutral. Neutral enough to enjoying eating people! Like, cannibalizes them. Wouldn't want the players to get 2d6 from holy or smite bonuses. The entire combat is annoying.

He almost one-shot-killed our Gnome Wizard, only failing because the Cleric had Close Wounds prepared (researched it on his downtime, since we're playing PF Core for the most part.)

As far as the CN alignment goes, I think that was an error (and think James Jacobs has said as much somewhere) and ruled him CE. Problem solved there, I think.

-t

Could also be why there is an

Spoiler:
anarchic weapon
in the immediately previous Chapter, to be handy in dispatching the critters in the Mother of Flies Chapter.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

In the giant melee that ensued after my players rode in Dog's tongue was actually the one that laid the killing blow on Madjaw. I also had to pull some punches on the greetings from the council encounter to avoid a TPK.

Spoiler:
The party rolled so terribly in their first round that they almost could not recover (failed saves vs. the fireballs which left the party wizard in the negatives and the fighter pretty bruised.)

As it is now I think I will have to lower the battle points required to break the siege since my party is short their fighter and I want to get them back to town to resurrect him so that player is not left out of the action for another full session.

The Exchange

Reporting the first death of my CoT campaign, we managed to make it into Delvehaven before anybody was slain!

Name: Mo Fah (age 68)
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Monk 5/Sorcerer 1
Adventure: What Lies in Dust
Location: Delvehaven, the big room with the large glass water tank.
Catalyst: Charging a shadowy skeletal triceratops
The gory details I have to start by saying, the player in question loves combat. He's a good roleplayer, but after an hour of exploration, roleplaying, trap searching and avoidance, and research, he was itching for a chance to draw blood. So when the group bard peeked into the next room down and found a massive dinosaur skeleton staring back at him, he called out for the others.

The monk came running, but the sorcerer/rogue (with expeditious retreat) and the druid (wild shaped into a raptor with speed 60) beat him there. The triceratops only took two turns to put the druid at -14, but with an 18 con he had a few rounds before he'd die. The monk decided to Flurry the water tank to bust it open, which drew the skeleton's attention. Once the druid was down, it charged the monk, rolling a critical hit which ended up totaling 67 damage, killing him outright by turning it's head sideways and skewering him on both of its large horns.

Sczarni

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One more goes down to ripclaw junior. Yay for dinosaurs!


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I do believe that puts it in the lead of "most dangerous thing in the AP". Seriously that thing packs a punch.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Name: Darsoom
Race: Aasimar
Classes/Levels: Paladin
Adventure: The Sixfold Trial
Location: Tower of Perpetuity, Asmodean Knot
Catalyst: No weapons against shadows
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:
One player was near the hole on a piece of rope by the time the shadows arrived. Nobody had any magic weapons except for half a dozen arrows held by the archer, and had no channels available. The DM house-ruled that Smite Evil counted as evil, but it was slow going because of AoOs and encumberance started by the Str loss. By the fourth round, more shadows appeared and only the paladin was left in the area; so he CdG himself rather than die and rise as a shadow himself.

Name: Lynx
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Rogue
Adventure: What Lies in Dust
Location: Wave Door, Cutlass Cove
Catalyst: High rollers
Gory Details: Rogue only had 10 str, and attempted to help the already low Strength cleric get to safety by provoking AoOs while using Total Defense (20 touch AC), only to result in the shadows rolling rather high on both attacks and damage
He was later reincarnated as a halfling

Name: Lynx
Race: Halfling
Classes/Levels: Rogue
Adventure: What Lies in Dust
Location: Bisby's Final Resting Place, Delvehaven
Catalyst: Phantasmal Killer
Gory Details: They were rather surprised by the effect of him touching the skull resulting in two shadows exploding out, smacking him to 2 Strength, followed by the skull flat-out killing him with the spell. Fortunately, they had a scroll of breath of life on hand

And the TPK...
Name: The Sixfold Survivors, all five of them
Classes/Levels: Cleric 5, Barbarian 5, Rogue 5, Oracle 4/Fighter 1, Fighter 5
Adventure: What Lies in Dust
Location: Delvehaven Basement
Catalyst: Forgetting to use their wand of death ward before it was too late
Gory Details:

Spoiler:
Mazeflesh heard the party coming down, preemptively summoned two rat swarms, and let them join the fray with the vampire spawn while using his crossbow from behind the partially closed door. The rogue broke away to try to handle him, but got grappled and blood drained to death before the rest of the party finishes off the swarms and spawn.

They then follow Mazeflesh into the mausoleum room and have a very long and drawn out fight, the barbarian dead from energy drain before getting killed by the archer's crit. With the coffin in plain view, Mazeflesh moves his gaseous form down the hall into the scroll room so the party hurredly follows to destroy him in his coffin; only to get jumped by Vahnwynne who finishes off the cleric and the fighter with energy drain (in a hurry because the archer took half her health in the first round with a crit).

The oracle drew out the fight for 20 rounds with his wand of cure moderate (had remembered to use death ward by this point), but he couldn't do enough damage between using the wand and himself to overcome her fast healing and was eventually killed by the time her four bat swarms arrived.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Oh come on Virgil, we had a clear winner on most dangerous creature before you came along. Oh well, here's the current breakdown.

--player deaths--
The bastards of Erebus: 9
The sixfold Trial: 12
What lies in Dust: 16
Infernal syndrome: 6
Mother of flies: 1
Twice damned prince: 0

Total PC deaths: 41

--PC/Cohort/companion deaths--
The bastards of Erebus: 0
The sixfold Trial: 0
What lies in Dust: 0
Infernal syndrome: 3
Mother of flies: 0
Twice damned prince: 0

Total NPC deaths: 3

Most kills:
Total: Virgil with 8
PCs: Virgil with 8
NPCs: Turin the mad with 2

Deadliest Creature
It's a three way tie between:
Shadows
Triceratops Skeleton
Vampires

Each of them has 5 kills each.

Well Turin, looks like we have been outclassed. Virgil is your group going to be reforming or is the TPK going to be the end of it?

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

I didn't let players level up to 6 in the middle of the dungeon like this adventure suggested; mainly because I have a standing rule of not awarding XP mid-crawl. One level likely wouldn't have made enough of a difference in the end (one more vampire in waiting, and 3 energy drains kills a 6 as easily as a 5).

My players aren't one to cash in their chips this far in the game. They're forming a group of new recruits to get vengeance; but because the Sixfold Survivors is now an ironic title, I'll be shifting the AP's plot around a bit.


Tikael wrote:

Oh come on Virgil, we had a clear winner on most dangerous creature before you came along. Oh well, here's the current breakdown.

--player deaths--
The bastards of Erebus: 9
The sixfold Trial: 12
What lies in Dust: 16
Infernal syndrome: 6
Mother of flies: 1
Twice damned prince: 0

Total PC deaths: 41

--PC/Cohort/companion deaths--
The bastards of Erebus: 0
The sixfold Trial: 0
What lies in Dust: 0
Infernal syndrome: 3
Mother of flies: 0
Twice damned prince: 0

Total NPC deaths: 3

Most kills:
Total: Virgil with 8
PCs: Virgil with 8
NPCs: Turin the mad with 2

Deadliest Creature
It's a three way tie between:
Shadows
Triceratops Skeleton
Vampires

Each of them has 5 kills each.

Well Turin, looks like we have been outclassed. Virgil is your group going to be reforming or is the TPK going to be the end of it?

That will change in short order I am reasonably sure of. ^_^


Name: Dario Segnestri
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Rogue 3
Adventure: The Sixfold Trials
Location: On stage, sixth act of the play
Catalyst: resurgent heroic tendencies
Gory Details: Dario, playing Larazod, took his lumps from his whippings and the rot grubs, and on stage, the party was getting pretty beat up by the troll skeletons. Calcienica was down but stable, but everyone on the stage had retreated beyond the trolls range, and Dario, remembering that he was trying to be a hero, pushed the young actress off stage and took the brunt of the troll's damage.

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16

I've got my second death in this campaign.

Name: Sidera
Race:Tiefling
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 6
Adventure: What Lies In Dust
Location: The Mariner's Display
Catalyst: A Haunting argument
The Gory Details: The party had already encountered a few haunts, so when half the party smelled a salty breeze and felt the floor shift, they fled the room, leaving the two tielflings, the barbarian Demon, and the sorcerer Sidera. Both failed their saves and were drawn into the halucinatory argument, Demon as Donatolus Bisby and Sidera as Ilnerik Sivanshin. From here on out, every round for 6 rounds, both have a 50% chance to act normal and a 50 % chance to try and kill each other. For three rounds, Demon resist the urge to kill, while Sidera unloads a fireball on round 1. The rest of the party, seeing Demon pleading with her to stop and Sidera apparently gone mad, move to subdue her, throwing tanglefoot bags, making stunning fist attempts, and so on. So when Demon finally snaps and lashes out on the fourth round, he has a really easy target. First hit knocks Sidera down to about 3 hit points.

"And your second attack?" I ask. evil GM grin

"Do I really have to?" Demon's player asks, already knowing that he does.

Crit. Demon is still wielding Anvengen's Edge, BTW. And while raging and power-attacking, he managed to deal 50 points of damage on the critical hit. Bam. Dead Tiefling.

Party then realizes they should have restrained them both, and move to stop Demon as well, throwing tanglefoot bags and making stunning fist attempts, etc. So when Demon recovers his wits, he angrily demands to know who killed "His Love" and why is he all sticky?

Demon did pay for an Asmodean priest to raise Sidera out of his own pocket. Out of guilt, I assume.


KnightErrantJR wrote:

Name: Dario Segnestri

Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Rogue 3
Adventure: The Sixfold Trials
Location: On stage, sixth act of the play
Catalyst: resurgent heroic tendencies
Gory Details: Dario, playing Larazod, took his lumps from his whippings and the rot grubs, and on stage, the party was getting pretty beat up by the troll skeletons. Calcienica was down but stable, but everyone on the stage had retreated beyond the trolls range, and Dario, remembering that he was trying to be a hero, pushed the young actress off stage and took the brunt of the troll's damage.

Well played there, by Dario. That should be worth extra popularity points, if not an outright Fame Point.


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Charles Evans 25 wrote:


Well played there, by Dario. That should be worth extra popularity points, if not an outright Fame Point.

It should also get interesting after Dario's death since:

Spoiler:
Dario made a bet with a contract devil in Pharasma's domain that he could unravel whatever villainy was afoot in Westcrown before he dies again, and if he fails, the contract devil gets his soul.

The in game mechanics of this are that he's coming back as a Hellbred from the Fiendish Codex II, and if he makes it to the end of the AP, he drops dead and goes straight to Nirvana, and if he dies before hand, he can't be raised.

I decided that, coming back as a Hellbred, he's going to look exactly like his Larazod makeup.

Dark Archive

I feel i have let my fellow GMS down a bit. I was so sure a few pcs would fall in the last fight of the bastards. What can you do when 4 channels cant roll over 6. oh well, first book done 4 PCs down.


Koresh wrote:
I feel i have let my fellow GMS down a bit. I was so sure a few pcs would fall in the last fight of the bastards. What can you do when 4 channels cant roll over 6. oh well, first book done 4 PCs down.

Chin up - there's plenty more chance to kill zem all ahead. ^_^

Scarab Sages

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

Name: Hawkeye
Race: Half-orc
Classes/Levels: Rogue 2/Ranger 2
Adventure: The Sixfold Trials
Location: Storage Room/Armory
Catalyst: Stealthy Mummy aka The Fallen One
Gory Details: Hawkeye was sent ahead to explore the room. He was sneaky, but not sneaky enough, or observant for that matter. He lost two-way Stealth v Perception test and was surprised by the hidden mummy in that room. Slammed once, he then lost initiative and I had the mummy grapplen. Then Hawkeye failed his Will Save and was paralyzed with fear.

The Paladin rolled a ridiculous Per check to 'hear' the quiet battle, but the party only arrived in time to see the mummy snap poor Hawkeye's neck.

While the rest of the party fought to take down the mummy, the ranger/rogue's remains crumbled to dust. Eventually they took a vial of his remains and hope to resurrect him one day.

Oh, I forgot to report that the Wizard Faerith's raven familiar was slain by Sian while also trying to scout ahead. She gave them a hard, running battle through the stair tubes, but was eventually slain, now falling forever in one of those towers.


I've racked up three so far with several close calls:

Name: Losha Provendy
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Cleric of Lamashtu/2
Adventure: The Bastards of Erebus
Location: Catacombs
Catalyst: arrogance and poor planning
Gory Details: Losha is annoyed that the rest of the party is battling skeletal wolves with bladed weapons when she has a perfectly serviceable morning star. Failing to command the undead, she rushes forward at the first chance yelling "Let me show you how it's done!". She hits but is promptly tripped afterward. Next turn, deciding she is done, she crawls away provoking 2 AoOs. Max damage hit and nearly max crit means Losha definitely showed them how to die.

Name: Garadel
Race: Elf
Classes/Levels: Ranger/5
Adventure: What Lies in Dust
Location: Streets of Westcrown
Catalyst: insulting NPCs
Gory Details: Garadel is alone with one other character as they scope out what looks like a thieves den. I wanted them to know some of the NPCs coming in the future so Stiglor of Mother of Flies spots them spying. Unhappy, he climbs up to the roof, wolverine style. Garadel decides to throw a glib comment about a boil on his rear before jumping off the building. Stiglor doesn't approve and follows them battle-ax first and crits. Garadel still doesn't learn and throws one more insult before standing to leave. From the ground, Stiglor takes another swing for another crit. Garadel is saved by DM fiat but an enemy is made. Good thing they have favored enemy of each other.

Name: Martine
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: bard/3 rogue/2
Adventure: What Lies in Dust
Location: thieves den
Catalyst: just bad luck
Gory Details: The heroes wanted to find the Council of Thieves (along with more money) so a side-adventure was arranged. The den was basically a holding area for whatever the Council needed to move. The bank director: a dark naga. First Martine falls to the sleep poison tail. When she wakes she looks to be going for a flank so the naga tosses a pair of scorching rays. Two good damage rolls later, Martine is no more. Thankfully the adoring public donated for the raise dead of the actress who played Larazod. Obviously, she was just practicing for her next part.


Name: Himo
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Rogue/4
Adventure: Sixfold Trials
Location: Storage Room/Armory
Catalyst: Rogue and Sorcerer go looking for magic item that pinged on ma-dar (was the Rope of Climbing worth it?)
The Gory Details: Himo and Alec (Sorcerer) go wandering into the far corner of the room after something pings on the detect magic that Alex keeps casting. The Paladin, Ranger and NPC Cleric don't enter. Himo makes the perception check when standing 5 ft from the Fallen One but it is too late as Alec fails his fear check and is paralyzed for 4 rounds. Himo draws a weapon to engage and protect the helpless Alec but to no avail. 4 hits later, Himo drops to -12 (with 11 Con) and is slain. In his defense, Alec did survive after the rest of the party stepped in and defeated the mummy. After finding the Crux and returning to the Shrine of Aroden, Himo gets raised but because of lack of funds at this time is starting the next mod with 2 negative levels. (ouch)


My Players Read this Spoiler at your Peril:
Our Heroes, utterly lacking in even the most basic security measures for 9 character levels, died to a man at the very beginning of the session. None made the DC 50 Perception checks to notice - while asleep - the intruder entering their sleeping chambers.

None succeeded on the coup de gras saves save Da Cultist, although given that The Thing from beyond Time dealt enough damage to outright slay the poor cleric, not even that natural 20 saved his neck - literally as the beast gnawed his head off of his shoulders. Gate devices are wonderful things.

Da Pimp's paladin/diviner/arcane archer was swiftly decapitated in his sleep - death in absentia, but a legitimate death nonetheless. Which is ok, as you will see.

Zin Sernn's monk 9 was slain via coup de gras from an empowered maximized fire-damage shocking grasp at a caster level of 11. Or, in other words, over 150 points of fire damage with the campaign's house rule removing the damage cap. Yes, that's (11d6, maximized +50% of 11d6 - total using averaged damage of 85, x2) for the coup de gras for a staggering 170 points of fire damage.

Jade II's fighter 1 / elemental water sorcerer 7 / eldritch knight 1 was slain via coup de gras from an empowered maximized shocking grasp at a caster level of 11 resulting in a 170 hp electrical coup de gras.

Torsin's paladin 6 / diviner 3 (aspiring to become an eldritch knight) was decapitated by a brief return to the material plane by Labdaga the Twin, courtesy of a gate device used by the antagonist.

Max was on guard duty along with the five dolls - he was patrolling, but against that vicious Stealth DC of 50, he didn't stand a chance. Luckily, he was not on the Council's hit list. The dolls were having themselves a tea party in the cellar.

All five character deaths were dealt courtesy of Cassandra Slayn, a homebrewed antagonist. As she departed, she dropped a simulacrum device, creating a CR 10 simulacrum of herself. This much lesser version of herself was tasked to sneak around and set the cathedral's wooden interior on fire, then wait to ambush any heroes attempting to leave the upper floor.

The messy deaths of Our Heroes - all via the proscribed methods required to activate their signature items - resulted in their first true resurrections of the campaign by those items.

Location: Shrine of Aroden (safe house)
Adventure: optional encounter, The Infernal Syndrome, home brewed replacement
Catalyst: Complete and utter lack of security measures

Name: Torsin II
Classes: Paladin 6 / Diviner 4
Adventure: The Mother of Flies
Location: The Dusk Market, Goren One-Ear's hookah shop front for a pesh parlor
Catalyst: attracting Kruthe the Hammer's undivided attention

The Gory Details: Nothing much really - a confirmed critical hit followed by a failed saving throw against death from massive trauma against Kruthe's enchanted warhammer. 62 out of 100 hit points, yet still managed to fail that DC 15 save with a natural 3 d20 roll. Good times. ^_^


Turin the Mad wrote:
** spoiler omitted **...

... That's probably one of the most remarkably petty and arbitrary series of deaths I've ever read. I'm glad you and your players found eachother, because I know I wouldn't be able to stand that.


Ice Titan wrote:
Turin the Mad wrote:
** spoiler omitted **...
... That's probably one of the most remarkably petty and arbitrary series of deaths I've ever read. I'm glad you and your players found each other, because I know I wouldn't be able to stand that.

Until you can be bothered to inquire as to the full reasoning behind the spoiler, please be so kind as to refrain from slinging mud.


Turin the Mad wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:


... That's probably one of the most remarkably petty and arbitrary series of deaths I've ever read.
Until you can be bothered to inquire as to the full reasoning behind the spoiler, please be so kind as to refrain from slinging mud.

I rebuilt Thrax as a summoner. I killed two characters between the eidelon and summons. I could have easily killed more if I wanted. Killing characters with custom built encounters is really not hard, so why did you bother?

Sczarni

lokidr wrote:
Turin the Mad wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:


... That's probably one of the most remarkably petty and arbitrary series of deaths I've ever read.
Until you can be bothered to inquire as to the full reasoning behind the spoiler, please be so kind as to refrain from slinging mud.
I rebuilt Thrax as a summoner. I killed two characters between the eidelon and summons. I could have easily killed more if I wanted. Killing characters with custom built encounters is really not hard, so why did you bother?

Primary Sources Are Fun!


lokidr wrote:
Turin the Mad wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:


... That's probably one of the most remarkably petty and arbitrary series of deaths I've ever read.
Until you can be bothered to inquire as to the full reasoning behind the spoiler, please be so kind as to refrain from slinging mud.
I rebuilt Thrax as a summoner. I killed two characters between the eidelon and summons. I could have easily killed more if I wanted. Killing characters with custom built encounters is really not hard, so why did you bother?

Simple -

Spoiler:
the Drovenges hired an assassin to deal with them, an extremely logical decision on their part. I saw fit NOT to torment them with that assassin during their ordeal in the Nessian Spiral "as written" because it would have been even worse than the way things were already playing out for them. The player characters have failed to implement even the most basic security measure - not even a LOCK, let alone an alarm spell - throughout the entire campaign thus far. Assassins kill by stealth, and just like player characters stack the odds heavily in their favor in order to succeed at their assigned task. Before any complaints are lodged about a DC 50 Perception check, note that there are low level and inexpensive means 'by the book' to attain AT LEAST that high a DC before 10th level, although 10th is when it gets even worse.

I used Thrax as an 8th level Summoner with Eidolon as well, and my group schooled it PDQ. I would counter that it was the the combination of dice, the players' tactics and Thrax's tactics that dictated the flow of events that slew two characters in your campaign. Based on the intent of the Thrax encounter being that a single champion be used by him, combined with Thrax's arrogance, why did your Thrax throw summoned critters in on top of the Eidolon?

I am basing this on your "eidelon and summons" statement, quoted above.

I don't know - that was your campaign, your Thrax and your player group. Knowing CoT as I do, were I a player at your table when both the Eidolon and regular summoned monsters started crawling out of the woodwork, I would probably be justified in complaining much the same as you did to me. That was not the intent of the encounter - but then, it was your table to run, not mine.

Spoiler:
I do not often pursue a TPK simply because as a general rule of thumb it is either inappropriate or - far more often it is simply unattainable. However, when intelligent foes are in the OOB, you can bet your dice bag that they can and will fight as intelligently as their personalities, perceptions and abilities permit them to.

I saw fit to include 'signature items', one for each character, earlier during the campaign. In some cases, MUCH earlier. To 'unlock' them required either prevailing under a very difficult circumstance or a set of circumstances specific to each item, or dying under an appropriate circumstance specific to each item. These items true rez once a month at the item's discretion - the first time being upon the aforementioned circumstance of character death as a guaranteed effect.

The assassin in question fulfilled the terms of her contract by using the proscribed methods of character death for each of the victims' signature items, as the Drovenges dictated that each 'mark' be dispatched by such and so method.

Contrived or hard to believe? From a metagame stand point, yes. From a villainous standpoint the intent was to terrify the surviving allies of the PCs into withdrawing from meddling in their affairs in Westcrown by the hideous results of the Heroes' demises.

This did not quite work out as the Drovenges had intended.

However, it DOES buy Our Heroes the down time to do the behind the scenes things that the players want to do - such as item crafting - as it will take some time for the truth of who annihilated their entire force in the Hagwood to reach the disbelieving ears of the Drovenge siblings. Time that my players' characters need before heading to sack Walcourt. Time that the Drovenge clan needs to have put its own plans into motion as well.

The Drovenge clan got their heads in lime-coated baskets after tasking the BBEG with such an esoteric list of deaths for each of the specified targets. The PCs got their big nasty items unlocked and they were none the wiser. Nor were they more than minutely inconvenienced. Best of all, they did not have to suffer 1 or more HOURS of play time dying to the last character that most TPKs require.

Considering that I was 'as scripted' supposed to slaughter them all in the bowels of the Nessian Spiral with either assassin or infernal duke - since they incinerated both Mayor and contract - ... I am quite comfortable with this flow of events having taken place at my table.


psionichamster wrote:
lokidr wrote:
Turin the Mad wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:


... That's probably one of the most remarkably petty and arbitrary series of deaths I've ever read.
Until you can be bothered to inquire as to the full reasoning behind the spoiler, please be so kind as to refrain from slinging mud.
I rebuilt Thrax as a summoner. I killed two characters between the eidelon and summons. I could have easily killed more if I wanted. Killing characters with custom built encounters is really not hard, so why did you bother?
Primary Sources Are Fun!

^_^ Thank you much, psionichamster!


Turin the Mad wrote:
lokidr wrote:
I rebuilt Thrax as a summoner. I killed two characters between the eidolon and summons. I could have easily killed more if I wanted. Killing characters with custom built encounters is really not hard, so why did you bother?

Simple -** spoiler omitted **

I used Thrax as an 8th level Summoner with Eidolon as well, and my group schooled it PDQ. I would counter that it was the the combination of dice, the players' tactics and Thrax's tactics that dictated the flow of events that slew two characters in your campaign. Based on the intent of the Thrax encounter being that a single champion be used by him, combined with Thrax's arrogance, why did your Thrax throw summoned critters in on top of the Eidolon?

I am basing this on your "eidelon and summons" statement, quoted above.

I don't know - that was your campaign, your Thrax and...

Thrax followed form for the first two rounds of combat in the format of "champion vs. summons". The champion destroyed the lemures on AoOs. Thrax knew he lost the competition so he attacked with wall of fire and stinking cloud, calling to his eidolon. Since I built the eidolon from scratch I had AC 27, 4 claw attacks at +14 for 3d6+8 damage. That kills 6th level characters and was within what summoner of 8 level could dish out. The summons were almost incidental.

Thrax is not the point, killing PCs is:

Spoiler:
the AP states the safehouse should remain safe for simplicity. Where the players camping in Delvehaven or the Nessian Spiral with no watch? You admit spot DC 50 is unbeatable so it sounds like you just wanted to kill the players. Thrax as summoner was a mistake on my part: too much for the PCs to handle. Why move up the assassination? I know why the Drovenges would want to kill them, but Chamandy could have done that at any time personally without paying anything. Why doesn't she kill them at their homes after the Six Trials or the Devildrome?

Any DM can create killer encounters. I know 16th level parties that would have died to your assassin and I'm sure your party had no chance if they did take standard precautions like a watch. It was not in the adventure path, which makes it arbitrary. My question is why you decided to willfully kill the PCs. Do you want them to be more paranoid? Do they enjoy the challenge?


lokidr wrote:
Any DM can create killer encounters. I know 16th level parties that would have died to your assassin and I'm sure your party had no chance if they did take standard precautions like a watch. It was not in the adventure path, which makes it arbitrary. My question is why you decided to willfully kill the PCs. Do you want them to be more paranoid? Do they enjoy the challenge?

Spoiler:
Actually, an assassin explicitly tasked to murder them is scripted in the adventure path as an optional encounter at the end of the Infernal Syndrome. RAW the assassin is supposed to murder them in the middle of night while they are in the bowels of the Nessian Spiral - something I perceived as being a bit too much, but certainly viable to strike them down at home.

Chammady is busy, otherwise she would not have hired an assassin in the first place to deal with the player characters.

Since it has been missed, I will state it simply.

They are adventurers, they should take some kind of security measures, especially when they are tangling with rich people that can and will use that wealth to achieve their goals. They did not.

They have signature items that they wanted to see activated but were gun shy about the activation process. Indeed, they were worried about how to survive activating them, and doing it soon enough to benefit every one.

This activated them, painlessly, without the normal loss of gold, without any significant loss of game time and without any trauma.

If you've read the campaign journal that psionichamster was so kind as to link for you, you might glean more information that could perhaps answer your questions.

Character deaths happen, most of them through a combination of bad luck and bad decisions.

My players seem to like the fact that I will kill their characters because it gives the game an element of risk.

Spoiler:
My players know that they probably would not have been quietly snuffed had they taken even the most basic precautions. The assassin in question does not have trapfinding and thus could not have dealt with any magical traps, even something as simple as an alarm spell. This lack of trapfinding was a deliberate choice on my part, on the off chance they even mentioned in passing even one of them making use of that spell.

The "unbeatable" Perception check would have been utterly moot with the use of a single first level sorcerer/wizard spell.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Okay. That's gone far enough.

I removed a post. Post-mortems are okay. Attacking other members of the community is not.


No offense guys, but can we get back on topic and just report casualties of the game rather than bash back and forth about why or how a TPK was done. Start your own thread if you want to continue this.


Xzarf wrote:
No offense guys, but can we get back on topic and just report casualties of the game rather than bash back and forth about why or how a TPK was done. Start your own thread if you want to continue this.

+1

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