Name: Jaekah, General of Iomrall
Race: Juvenile Magma Dragon
Classes/Levels: Barbarian [True Primitive] 4/Cavalier [Honor Guard] 7, Mythic Champion 1
Adventure: Interlude between Rivers Run Red and Varnhold Vanishing
Location: The Talonquake (southern Narlmarches)
Catalyst: The King of the Forest
The gory details: The PCs finally decided to take care of the King of the Forest in the southern Narlmarches over the past three sessions. After making their way into the dragon's fungal lair and slaying his plant-based minions, they eventually retreated after defeating the King's three half-dragon Hobgoblin children and capturing one alive for questioning.
Later that night, the King - Nuozelas, a Mature Adult Forest Dragon - and his consort - a Green Dragon of the same age - pursued the party and attacked in the dark of just after midnight. The party quickly took out the Green, and then started ganging up on Nuozelas, including a lucky pair of criticals: first by Lilith, which reduced the King's movement speeds, and a second by Jaekah, whose adamantine axe cut straight through his DR and left a nasty gash across the right side of his face.
Furious, the King began a barrage of attacks on Jaekah. Had he not been mythic, the King would likely have ignored him after his first attack dropped Jaekah to negatives, leaving the unconscious general to fall to the ground below and turning the rest of his attacks on the equally-nearby Takeshi. However, Jaekah now had the Mythic ability that allowed him to stay conscious in negatives - so Nuozelas kept battering at him, expending an entire full-attack of bite, claw, claw, gore, and tail slap on the general, reducing him to exactly negative Jaekah's-Constitution-times-three.
As Duchess Elegy was out of 5th-level spells for the day, she was unable to breath of life him back to life quickly; instead he'll have to wait to be raised the following morning. Thankfully the party already has a diamond on hand.
Name: Larran
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Fighter 11
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: In the tomb
In toe-to-toe combat with Armag - who gets two good crits and a solid hit on his third attack and delivers well over 100 points of damage in a round.
Fortunately Robert the Cleric, who was standing immediately behind the fallen elf, managed to get Breath of Life scroll off while the skeletons missed with their attacks of opportunity ....
Name: Roland
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Magus 11
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: The Tomb
Catalyst: Skeletal Champions.
The Gory Details: The monk and the magus went into the room, leaving the paladin and wizard behind in the hallway while they searched. The monk made his perception check to spot the skeletons but the magus failed by 1. When initiative rolled the magus rolled low, and after taking a couple of arrows int the surprise round he was down some HP. Once regular combat started, the monk made his way out of the room, but the skeletons acted before the magus and with only one target left they filled him with arrows. 5 arrows struck home including one critical hit, totaling 90 some damage and taking the wounded magus to -23 HP.
Name: Lilith of the Wyld Wood, Spymistress of Iomrall
Race: Leanbh-dubh (Homebrew Race)
Classes/levels: Hunter 11/Mythic Trickster 1
Adventure: Interlude between RRR and VV - Eranex's quest from Dragons Unleashed
Location: Lair of Silverstep, Lake Silverstep, Varnhold territory
Catalyst: Low Will Save and Non-Evil alignment
The Gory Details: Aiding the feytouched silver dragon Eranex in her quest to rid her father's lair of the ankou Orsig and his shadowy compatriots, the group battled their way to the ringleader and his right-hand sorceress Herrketta without much difficulty; defeating Orsig and most of their minions convinced Herrketta to shadow walk back to their home realm to escape with her life, taking some of their minions with her. She did not, however, take along the Fetchling cleric Ebana, and the group soon later found her in her reclusive little corner of the cavern... along with the Dread Skeleton of Silverstep, raised by her as a sentinel, and the Shae trio known as the Glimmer Sisters.
Ebana opened the battle with a blasphemy, which rolled harmlessly off the colony's Magister Errol and, while it injured Eranex and General Jaekah, the two dragons were immune to the most lethal part of the spell, its paralysis side-effect. Viscountess Elegy and Warden Takeshi were held for a short time, but Lilith's poor will save and unlucky roll had her held in place for the next several minutes, and no one had anti-paralysis spells on-hand at the time. When moments later Silverstep's skeleton unleashed its breath weapon, there was no way for the paralyzed Lilith to make use of her legendary agility to evade, and the blast of frost drove her deep into negative HP.
She was revived - and thus thankfully rid of her paralysis - by Elegy moments later via breath of life, but in the chaos of the battle no time could be spared to do much more than keep her alive but unconscious, and she didn't wake until the battle was already over - Silverstep's skeleton shattered by Eranex, Takeshi, and Jaekah's repeated blows and Errol's relentless magic, and Ebana snatched up in Eranex's jaws and bitten in two.
Heh, my group had the exact same problem in STAP. The Mother-of-All ate the bard, and the optional super-Shambling Mound on the Isle of Dread crushed the ninja.
Name : Maleos Surtova
Race : Human
Class : Ranger (Scout) 9
Location : Halls of the Corrupted, bellow Candlemere Tower.
Catalyst : Powerful 2 attacks + smite from a corrupted Anti-Paladin Graveknight.
Details : Set out to find missing fishermen, Maleos, along with his 2 friends and allies Duke Grant and Elven Alchemist Adalien set out to Candlemere, source of the kidnappings. Early on after finding a millenia old Azruverda who kept guard on the horrors below, they went out to deal with the problem, as the monstrous beetle creature could not go face the problem itself after the creation of the tower, centuries ago. While at first facing the town's gnome alchemist now turned feral and insane, they quickly dispatched the old acquaintance and set out bellow, hundreds of feet under the earth.
Surrounded by dozens upons dozens of corpses, some thousands of years old, they fought the last 2 champions who, centuries ago defeated the horror living here. Now faced with a half orc monk and a human anti-paladin, they battled on, but as the monk exploded from the alchemists explosive onslaught, Maleos fell to the foul burning sword of the paladin.
The duke reacted quickly and dimension doored everyone back outside. Leaving Akiros to bring back Maleos's body back to the city, the Duke and Adalian both used 1 hero point to fuel a big dimension door, going back down to face the Anti-Paladin with the Azruverda, after which they held back a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath from summoning a Shoggoth trough sacrifice.
2 weeks later, Maleos would come back to life in Restov, courtesy of the High Priest of the city via Raise Dead, giving everyone a new perspective on religion.
Can I ask how this character took Battle Herald levels without having the Inspire Courage class feature?Name: Duke Basque Garess
Race: Human
Classes/levels: 6 Cavalier/7 Battle Herald
Because the GM was feeling generous that day and let him.
Honestly when the player asked if he could take the Prestige Class, I asked if he met prerequisites...he said yes (we both missed the required class feature). Honest mistake and we are not PFS so…no biggie. I didn't feel like making the player rebuild when we discovered the error a month or two later. Now a year or so past, it hasn't proved to be a huge unbalance so it stands a testament to GMs who should read pre-requisites more closely. We are nearly done with Kingmaker (book 6!) and there is enough there to kill good King Basque and his able companions. Perhaps those 7 levels of battle herald will make the difference.
Oh and also:
Race: Amos the Gnome Rogue
Adventure: War of The River Kings
Location: Irrovetti’s Palace (Rezetha’s Lair)
Catalyst: Being unexpectedly within range of a great axe
The Gory Details: The witch slept a flying giant that was added as Rezetha’s Keeper ( the GM does not like solos :-) ) the giant fell and was awakened by the fall (or maybe it was bleed damage? I don’t recall). He conveniently landed right next to the gnome. The crit landed even with the penalties from prone. Poor Amos was mourned for a few minutes before the party cleric brought him back to life.
Name: Walker
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Rogue 2, Cleric 10
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: Irovetti's palace
Catalyst: Irovetti
The Gory Details: (optional): Walker was standing in front of the throne, protecting another PC from General Avinash Jurrg's rage. Irovetti dim doors in (predetermined time and square) and Walker is sandwiched in between Jurrg and Irovetti, but stays just one more round to protect the other PC. Next round, Irovetti hits four times including one crit x3. Walker is a sliced and diced to about negative 50. A few rounds later, the party has to teleport out, leaving Walker's body and gear behind. Wrong place, wrong time. The True Res to bring Walker back required taking money from the kingdom's treasury. A nat 1 on the stability roll lead to anarchy.
Name: Corinth Hastings
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Fighter (Aldori Swordlord) 2
Adventure: The Stolen Lands
Location: The Old Sycamore
Catalyst: “Let’s just burn it down”
The Gory Details: (optional):
Corinth and party (witch, bard, and rogue) discovered the Old Sycamore and a bunch of mite footprints, but failed to find the entrance to the mite hive and decided to move on. The next morning the party found mite prints in their camp and decided to go back and put the little blue menaces down.
The party returned to the tree and managed to find the entrance and head down. After hearing the mites playing with catapults, they shouted and insult and fled up the tunnel, where they gathered around the entrance to butcher anything that came out. The mites sent the three monstrous centipedes after them, which the party easily butchered. The party waited for more enemies but none were forthcoming, so they began making Molotov cocktails out of the alcohol from the Thorn River camp and rags and throwing them down the entrance shaft. After a half-dozen of these, the fires grew big enough that most of the dungeon’s inhabitants fled to the surface with the giant whiptail centipede leading the charge. I gave each of the inhabitants a save to avoid the fire and smoke damage, but 14 or so failed and died in the flames along with the kobold prisoner.
The battle outside was intense, with Corinth tanking the giant tick while the bard and rouge tried to hold off the remaining 6 mites. The witch was flinging slumber and misfortune hexes from the back while the giant whiptail centipede loomed over the battle making bites and whips at random.
After a few rounds, Corinth was knocked out by bites from the tick and centipedes, but the rouge took an attack of opportunity to put a cure light wounds potion down Corinth’s throat to stabilize him. The tick started attacking the rogue, and while it was botching grapple checks every round it was still doing a fair amount of damage. The party minus Corinth retreated a few feet to regroup and one of the mites coup de graced the unconscious Swordlord in retaliation for burning down their home. The battered party beat a hasty retreat back to Oleg’s, where they held a kegger in Corinth’s memory.
Name: Erin
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Witch (11)
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: Armag's Tomb
Catalyst: Greatsword wielding Skeleton Champ
The Gory Details:
The party made good progress through the tomb, but spent a lot of ressources on the fights against the Iron Golem, the Bloody Skeleton Champions and Zorek. So, they were a bit worn out, but still had a couple of mighty spells, more than enough rounds of Rage and even some points in their arcane pool left.
As they opened the battle against Armag and the skeleton champions I rolled really low for Initiave and so all the heroes were able to act before their opponents. The Magus of the group threw a fireball into the room and Erin just passed the door, so that she can make the most out of her cone of cold. These two spells alone killed three of the skeletons and left 4 in the lower two digits hp region. But finally the skeletons were able to react and three went to meet the witch, which was not only the closest target but also the one which caused the most damage!
A couple of hits later, Erin was already badly wounded (and would have been unconsious if it wasn't for her false life). She took a 5 foot step and healed herself with her healing hex. The druids companion held off one skeleton while someone else destroyed another one. But one skeletel chapion were able to reach Erin with a five foot step and two more hits later she was almost down to single digits. She took another five foot step (while the rest were fighting the remainig two skeletons and Armag, who knocked the paladin into negative hp) and cast a lightning bolt. Unfortunatly, the champion before her had not only received no damage this fight but also made his reflex save and so he was able to take another 5 foot step and attack the witch two times. The first hit brought her down into negative hp and the second one sealed her fate... Soon after that the rest of the party finished off Armag and the rest of the skeletons.
Luckily for her, Erin still had two hero points, so she could cheat death. Still, she now leads the "scoreboard" in our Kingmaker campaign as this was the second time she cheated death.
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Name: Valten Garess, High Chancellor of Narnia
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Rogue 11th/Cavelier 1st
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: The Silent Cistern
Name: Jillian Garnelgold, Grand Diplomat of Narnia
Race: Halfling
Classes/levels: Paladin 12th
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: The Silent Cistern
Name: Garain the Seer, Magister of Narnia
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Wizard 12th
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: The Silent Cistern
Name: Mikaila Dunrova, Warden of Narnia
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Ranger 12th
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: The Silent Cistern
Name: Andragor Leavy, High Priest of Narnia
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cleric of Erastil 12th
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: The Silent Cistern
Gory Details: Well, my players simply fell apart under the Gardeners onslaught. Andragor was panicked and quickly captured by the Gardeners black tentacles spell. Makaila was grievously wounded by the scorching the will-o-wisps put on her. Valten broke free of the black tentacles only to succumb to the will-o-wisps unrelenting surges of punishing electricity. Jillian, upon freeing herself from the black tentacles, unwisely charged the Gardener ignoring the wisps and, already burned by their blasts, collapsed as soon as the Gardener touched her. With only Andragor left relatively unhurt, the Gardener turned his attention on him and touched the priest, destroying his mortal coil and sending him to his god. Mikaila tried to flee, but to no avail. The Gardener caught her in short order and she too fell to the ghosts wicked caresses.
Not quite a TPK. One of my players was not present this session. Long live Brynndolf Arnandyr, High Chancellor of Narnia!
Name: Naimil Bannitlarn
Race: Elf
Class: Ranger 1
Adventure: Stolen Landds (well... barely)
Location: Oleg's
Catalyst: Bandits Raid
The Gory Details:
The players eagerly roll their first initiative of the entire campaign. They can't wait to try their new characters in combat.
Happs Bydon, the bandit, wins the initiative. He smirks when he sees an elf (his favored enemy as written, I swear I didn't fudge that!). He gets a crit. He confirms it. He almost gets maximum damage (+ 3x str on his composite bow... + 3x his favored enemy bonus...).
The poor ranger took enough damage to died outright. He haven't rolled a single attack.
(Don't worry... The oracle used Stabilize on him on his first action and succeded on a tough caster level check. The ranger stabilized on the brink of death and suffered serious wounds. He also became very ill (infection), and only moon radishes and the help of Bokken could save him...)
Name: Zstelian Jamir
Race: Halfling
Class: Pistolero/Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger 12
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing and twice in War of the River Kings
Location: Somewhere in the swamps, always the swamps
Catalyst: Wandering monsters with swallow whole
The Gory Details:
Everything, and I do mean everything was out to eat my poor little halfling glass cannon. The only reason that the party lived was because we had all the money in the world and every time a lvl 8 scroll hit the marketplace we bought up the scrolls of clone. I think my halfling was eaten 3 times, of those 3 times 1 of them he shot his way out of. Our king died 3 times as well. The best part. We had a secret mass grave for all of the "dead" pc's we had been compiling. We brought a new player in and the first time somebody died and he saw the crazy scheme we had going we all said in near unison "This is the greatest secret of our lands. You shall not whisper a word of what you have seen here to anyone or else."
Name: Corril
Race: Let's call it a miniature kitsune, as I forget what the custom race's name was called.
Class: Wizard
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Mud Bowl
Catalyst: Tendriculous with Swallow Whole
The Gory Details:
One of my players, who would later leave the campaign altogether, played this small, over-impulsive fey fox thing. Ridiculous int bonus, small sized, 40-foot movement speed. Honestly regretted allowing it to come into play. At any rate, Corril got overly curious and got near the mud pool where the Tendriculous awaited. She failed her fort save and became nauseated. Rather than turn back to puke her guts until she had gotten acclimated to the scent, she continued as if nothing. Queue the Tendriculous rising up and swallowing her whole. She couldn't even attempt to escape because being nauseated removed her standard action.
The party was forced to retreat, leaving Corril to become fertilizer.
Never facepalmed so hard in my life.
Name: Chastity Mother F#ckin' Jones
Race: Human
Class: Cavalier, Order of the Penitent
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: On the snow-covered road leading to the capital city of Mercy
Catalyst: Kingdom Event - Bandit Attack
The Gory Details
Ten, rather prosperous but uneventful, months into the first year of the nation of Erlosung, banditry reared its ugly head again. Exactly a year since they first came to the Stolen Lands, our intrepid group of adventurers and settlers strode out to meet the brigands. What they met was a group of mutated and diseased gnolls led by an enormous ogre wielding a massive ogre hook and what looked to be a small balista strapped to his back. The gnolls snarled out a hollow "we're appointed by the rulers to collect tolls on this road", which made the actual king burst into laughter. Combat erupts, the gunslinger and wizard start making easy work of the gnolls while the rogue, warpriest, and Chastity headed towards the ogre king. The ogre manages to get some pot shots off with his massive longbow, only to bull rush the warpriest into the crude barricade the gnolls had across the road, knocked the preist of Gorum to negatives. Spending a Hero Point, Chastity charged the ogre with her ranseur, pole-vaulted up and over the beast, landed next to the fallen warpriest and then dumped a potion of cure serious wounds down his throat. Sadly, the ogre king took this opportunity to lay into Chastity, hitting critically and dealing 70 points of damage to the level 5 cavalier and striking her stone dead. They remainder of the party prevailed and carried Chastity's remains back to Mercy. A state funeral was held and monument erected in her honor, and the holiday of Founder's Day was renamed to Chastity Day. She will be missed.
Daaaaaang. That's a pretty epic way to go out. I'm kind of surprised the rest of the party didn't try to scrounge up the funds for a raise or at least reincarnate after that display.
Hopefully the party can scrape together the money to get those negative levels scraped off ASAP.
Name: Munguk (yes, THAT Munguk. With skilled diplomacy rolls, they managed to get him to join the party and made him the kingdom's Royal Assassin).
Race: Hill Giant from Rivers Run Red
Classes/levels: Fighter/1 (that's as far as he got)
Adventure: The Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Traveling south of the Dunsward towards the Tors of Levines
Catalyst: Random encounter - Greater Cyclops
The Gory Details: Traveling south towards the Valley of the Dead, the party encounters a greater Cyclops that begins throwing rocks at them. The party's ranger and the hill giant, who have become fast friends, split in attempt to flank the Cyclops. The hill giant arrives first, and proceeds to get pounded into pulp in rapid succession of three attacks. There was little left to bury or burn on pyre.
Name:Rolas
Race:Elf
Classes/levels:Rogue/1
Adventure:Stolen Lands
Location:PC Camp on the way back to Oleg.
Catalyst:4 consecutive bad perception rolls + Happs revenge.
10 days after i rolled another random encounter: bandits. I stated that Happs, Falgrim and two other bandits tracked down the party, and find them camped, and so they hide waiting for the elf guard turn for Happs revenge.
Ironically Rolas's player quit the game the session before, and since the party was on the way back to Oleg I had decided to have the rogue quit the party too once they arrived there. He wasn't suppose to die, only to became a NPC stationing near Oleg, and a probable spymaster candidate for the future Kingdom.
But the dice decided an other fate for him:
- First turn of guard the half elf summoner pc and his eidolon both failed the perception againsts stealth of the bandit group.
- Second turn the Catfolk Ranger failed the perception too (rolling a 2 on the dice).
- Third turn, it's Rolas guard, Rolas failed the perception (rolling a 3 on the dice) - surprise round Falgrim hit him first, then Happs hit him, scoring a critical, and putting Rolas to -13, just one below his 12 con.
So after this I asked the other 3 sleeping PCs to make a perception roll. 19, 20, 19... They hear the fight, wake up, and then killed Happs and the 3 bandits, put Falgrim unconscious and bring him alive to Kesten, and they leveled up too!
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Name: !Kunot
Race: Human (Mwangi)
Class & Level: Druid (Wolf Shaman) 2/Monk (Sensei) 1
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: Near Elise Barkot & Son's
Catalyst: Selfless recklessness
The Gory Details: We happened upon Mrs. Barkot's to find that her son was being chased by Large spiders! The child had climbed up a tree, but as we ran toward it, the spiders followed him upwards.
The alchemist threw a bomb straight upward, only to have it fall back down upon him (rolled a 1). Meanwhile, the two with bows fired upon the spiders while the wizard tried to make the trunk slippery enough to cause a spider to slip. !Kunot, in a burst of body hair, turned partway into a wolf and started up the tree after one of the spiders. His attempt to stun the spider failed; it turned around, bit him for nearly all of his HP, and caused him to let go of the tree.
He was dead as soon as he hit the ground.
The child survived unharmed, the spiders were crushed, and so far (by the end of this post), the alchemist had caught everyone in his group in splash damage at least once each.
The very next day...
Name: Haela
Race: Secretly a Changeling
Class & Level: Homebrew Chaotic Paladin 1/Inquisitor (both of Milani) 2
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: A way's off from Elise Barkot & Son's
Catalyst: The demands of the Everbloom
The Gory Details: When the ogre rushed in to attack, she (even her player) knew how this would end, but decided to do it gracefully. She intercepted the ogre, declaring a smite attempt; the ogre attacked and almost dropped her. Then, the ogre got blinded, injured, and flanked, then swung down wildly.
It was somehow precisely on target. Haela merely bowed her head, content that she had protected the closest thing to revolution the Stolen Lands would undergo.
(The wizard demanded the ogre stabilized so that he could charm him. The GM won't let anyone be the ogre. In related news, our exploration team no longer has any Good members; two falsely believe themselves to be "Lawful Good" and "Chaotic Neutral", and another has thought of making his next one Chaotic Evil. Fortunately, everyone is ready with backup character ideas. Unfortunately, we might not be able to build a backup nation later on)
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Hot on the heels of the last one (the very next session, in fact, and later that day in game time)...
Name: Sigurd, Paladin of Nethys
Race/Class: Human Spellblade Magus 3
Adventure: Stolen Land
Location: The Honey Queen's Hive
Catalyst: Everyone Screwed Up
The Gory Details: The GM wanted to add a third party thing to gradually introduce Mythicality. He tried re-working everything in it, managing to under- and over-estimate us at the same time.
So we were rescuing a child from a Preservationist alchemist who turned out to be a giant, talking queen bee. Turning the tables on us mammals, she flew upwards and threw down nauseating smoke bombs while we clumped up into small groups for her, despite one person repeatedly shouting at us not to. Two people couldn't roll a single attack roll over 7, and almost every spell slot had been used up in prior scuffles.
Sigurd wanted to negotiate with her at first, then to shout, "Smite Evil!" at her to make his sword glow; instead, he spent most of the fight either nauseated or on fire. Three of our number managed to lure the queen into a small passage in the hive, with Sigurd cutting off her escape. Since he never bothered to put himself out and nobody was in a position to help him with that, he was eventually scratched by her stinger and burned to death.
We failed the side-quest, we burned down the second dead, hollowed-out tree we'd explored, we lost our first opportunity for Mythic Ascension, and Sigurd's player got to be the ogre after I pointed out that Charm Person actually lasted hour/level, not day/level.
Every character and player went to bed ashamed that night, as well as the GM himself.
I'm beginning to worry that I'll have an addition for this thread soon. At level 1 my two players (an Arcanist and a Shaman with a fighter joining soon) encountered an owlbear just after leaving Oleg's for the first time. After a couple will saves and no dead owlbear I suggested running, to which the arcanist refused and somehow managed to kite it on horseback with his measly +2 to attack rolls and many less bolts than it should've taken.
At level 2, just last session, they managed to sandwich themselves between a large centipede, five mites and a giant tick (effectively an APL+4 encounter). One sleep, an entangle, obscuring mist, and four burning hands later they somehow won.
Hope this doesn't give them the idea that they're invincible.
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Name: Latricia Rezbin
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Ranger 13
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: Greater Shadows are cheap munchkinry and no GM should be allowed to use them.
Catalyst: Perception check failed by 1 point!
The Gory Details: (optional)
While exploring the lair of the Nightskitter, our heroes were ambushed by a Greater Shadow. Surprise round 8 strength damage. Round 1, GS wins initiative, hits again: 6 Str damage. Latricia dies and rises as a shadow. Positive energy from heals and positive energy elementals end the shadows decisively. Players collect Latricia's gear and take the long way around. They'll come back with clerics and scrolls of daylight.
Name: Erin
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Witch 12
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: Whiterose Abbey
Catalyst: Invisible Wardens, bad Initiative rolls and an untimely Crit.
The Gory Details:
So, it is poor Erin again. My players where exploring the Whiterose Abbey (looking for some specific horn, or at least the creators of it) as they went into the chapel, Gaetane and his soldiers lying (invisible) in ambush. When they saw the alchemical tools in a corner of the room, Erin and Argus (the Magus of the group) went there to examine them, whie the rest went to have a look at the rest of the room (and the Barbarian guarding the door). That was the moment when the trap sprung: In the surprise round Erin already got some damage from one of the two Wardens standing next to her. Then I rolled a 20 for the Initiative of the Wardens and Erin, normally the first to act in combat, due to her high Ini-modifier, rolled quiet low (as did the rest of the party). So the Wardens were first to act in round 1 and one of them critically hit the witch with his Greatsword, which resulted in enough damage to kill her.
The rest of the battle wasn't that hard, even if Gaetane almost succeded in taking down the paladin. But a flying Magus, the druid, which likes to fight as an Earth Elemental (and were therefore able to move through the walls up to roof) and the quiet acrobatic Barbarian managed to defeat him once they were in close range.
Luckily Erin had two hero points left and were able to cheat death (for the thrd time in this campaign!). The worst thing was: The player4 of Erin wasn't at the table that day! Her husband played her character during her absence. He told us that she kissed him goodbye that morning with the words: "And don't let me die!" :D
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Name: Aiden
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Rogue 2
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: Temple of the Elk
Catalyst: That stupid bear...
The Gory Details: Aiden slipped around the far side of the pool to try and flank the bear. He failed his stealth check and the bear charged him. The rest of the party couldn't get to him before he was mauled to death.
Why do all my favorite characters have to die?!?
Name: Lilith of the Wyld Wood, Spymistress of Iomrall
Race: Leanbh-dubh (Homebrew Race)
Classes/levels: Hunter 13/Mythic Trickster 2
Adventure: The Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Vordakai's Tomb
Catalyst: Bombing Two Fort Saves in a Row
The Gory Details: Lilith just had bad luck.
The party has finally made its way down through Big V's tomb and engaged the lich in his throne room. Vordakai (in my game Wizard [Necromancer] 15/Archmage 4, a CR20 opponent) was not alone - accompanying him was the golem-like undead Haru Anon (from Enemies of NeoExodus: Folding Circle - the CR20 version). Thankfully Haru's presence was not a blindside to the party, having been informed that Vordakai had a "soul golem" by Maestro Pendrod earlier. The party had divvied up tactics while they buffed: Lilith and Jaekah would pound Haru Anon full of damage and take the undead/construct out as quickly as possible, while Takeshi and the two casters would focus on Vordakai.
No plan however survives contact with the enemy.
Lilith, as usual, went first, and did exactly what she said she was going to do: punch Haru full of holes. Haru took a bunch of damage but was still kicking. For giggles, she even burned a point of mythic power to get an extra attack and launched one of her arrows with the glass arrowhead filled with elixir of improbability at the floor at Vordakai's feet. It exploded into a big ol' blast of force damage that just barely missed hitting Lilith herself, and she probably would have Evasion'd her way out of it if it had. So no biggies there; her turn went exactly as planned.
The problem was, Vordakai went second. And opened with horrid wilting.
Which is nasty enough on its own. But because of their hybrid nature, despite being statistically Fey, Leanai-dubh are also considered Plant types for the purposes of spells and effects. And horrid wilting does extra damage to things of the Plant type and [Water] subtypes. Combine that with bombing the save and Lilith was hurting. She would have possibly survived, though, especially if she could go into stealth mode and get out of V's line of sight before he could cast again.
The rest of initiative played out. Takeshi rushed Vordakai, Jaekah rushed Haru and dealt a ton of damage with a Power Attacking greataxe, Elegy and Errol lit off some spells. Haru Anon had the last initiative of all, and by the time its turn came up, it was hurting pretty badly; after its turn Initiative would loop back to the top, and Lilith could probably kill it in one shot.
Except Haru used its Spirit Blast, trying to harm as many people as possible in a single attack and get some healing.
And Lilith bombed her save again.
On top of that, the higher-level versions of Haru Anon have this nasty little special ability that if anything within 60' of him gets dropped to 0 HP or lower, its soul gets sucked into the Haru gestalt immediately, no save, and can't be restored until Haru is destroyed. So despite being Mythic and having a much larger-than-usual negative HP pool, Lilith was out of the fight as soon as she hit 0, which Haru's blast was more than enough to do thanks to the failed save.
Combine that with the damage he managed to do to Jaekah, Errol, Elegy, and Elegy's summoned Hound Archon (which also died from the damage, though it was just a summon so nothing for Haru to absorb there), the construct healed enough that it managed to last a whole extra round before Jaekah and Errol reduced it to scrap.
Luckily, once Haru was gone, Lilith's pre-prepared clone activated. So while the rest of the party was finishing off Vordakai, Lilith was digging herself out of the Summer Queen's garden, chasing down some clothes, and getting caught up by Puck on what she missed while the party was away in Varnhold.
Excellent example of Rocket Tag in action. Having back-up clones is probably standard MO as well as pulled teeth for Ressurection/Reincarnation.
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Name: Gyatso
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Hungry Ghost Monk lvl1
Adventure: Stolen Land
Location: Thorp River Camp
Catalyst: After capturing, torturing and killing Happs (yes, they are not a LG party... you should see how they are carrying the kingdom now), they novice party decided to attack Kressle Camp before they knew there were new contestants around. Soon after, they were retreating being chased by Kressle, having killed a few bandits.
Kressle successfully ambushed the party, and got into melee with Chester the Wizard. Mithras, the Gnome Summoner decided his wolf-eilodon was in serious danger of dying, son he didn't send him, which forced Gyatso the Monk to charge and then make a flurry of Disarms to get this lady to stop hurting his friend. At Kressle turn, armed with only one handaxe, she decided to attack the most dangerous looking enemy, scoring a critical hit (which she wouldn't have confirmed if she was dual-wielding both handaxes). Then a lvl1 human received a critical handaxe hit (×3) made by a ranger with humans as a favored enemy.
Two levels after, the party allied with the Sootscale tribe to spam the forest with low quality traps, decimating the bandist's hitpoints and will to live, and Makaan the Figther (Gyatso's spiritual succesor) killed mostly unaided the remaining bandits. Kressle managed to escape, only to be briefly seen at the hot springs of the Frog Pond.
Name: Duro! (Exclamation sign not compelling but usual)
Race: Half Orc
Classes/levels: Barbarian lvl 3
Adventure: Stolen Land
Location: The Old Sycamore, Centipede Chasm
Catalyst: After spending his Orc Ferocity to quaff a healing potion (he charged Tickleback before the party Alchemist threw his bombs), Duro the Barbarian, Chester the Wizard, Makaan the Figther and Kelendor the Alchemist got together at the War Room (R5) to decide how to continue. They didn't see or hear the mites nor the kobolds from the Common Room (R6) and only knew that there were two possible ways; crossing the chasm or going back and around. Duro, a man orc that would never go backwards, decided to cross the chasm despite his comrades suggestions not to, and the DM clearly mentioning how dark and the chasm was. The Centiped got a critical bite.
Nowadays, everytime something ominous is described, the players know that blood will run. They even ask if their actions seem ominous, as a way of doublechecking bad decisions.
Names: Joshua (magister), Dorin (spymaster), Wilma (duchess)
Races: elf, dwarf, human
Classes: magus, gunslinger, oracle
Location: Armag's tomb
Details: We stumble upon Armag moments after he has awakened, and he stands amidst the butchered bodies of those who revived him. The four of us battle Armag and his undead soldiers, with Noe (my half-orc barbarian) at the forefront. We madly exchange raging power-attacks but he hits way harder, and Noe has to be healed a few times. The heroes and enemies each fall dead one by one, until only the two barbarians remain. Noe has but a few hit points left when he is finally able to land the killing blow on Armag. After drinking almost every potion his party members own, he explores the burial chamber and finds a greater treasure horde than he has ever seen. He loads all treasure and dead allies into a portable hole, and unsuccessfully looks for a way out of the tomb. He finally grows weary and falls asleep with his nifty new greatsword. He awakens outside, where it seems he has unwittingly slaughtered dozens of men, women, and children from the Tiger Lord barbarian tribe. The party's horses have fled, along with their horseshoes of speed. Noe walks for weeks to make it back to Tatzleford, where the high priest raises the fallen Lords of Tuskland.
Name: Wilma (duchess)
Race: human
Class: oracle
Location:: Fort Drelev
Details: During the liberation of Drelev, the party stalks the empty streets at night, hunting the giants and ambushing them one or two at a time. They are ready to pounce on the next one, and combat will begin when Wilma casts a buff spell on Noe. Noe is possessed by the spirit of Armag within the greatsword, and believes this spell is an attack on him. It takes only a few swings, and he has slaughtered his duchess. Now his two remaining allies must fight both Noe and the giant, but Noe mostly fights the giant. The two allies are victorious. They confiscate the cursed sword of Armag, revive the unconscious Noe, and use a scroll to raise Wilma from the dead. Things were tense for a while.
Name: Kurssuk
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Barbarian 14
Adventure: Sound of a Thousand Screams
Location: a farm outside from Drelev
Catalyst: Full round flurry of arrows from the Horned Hunter
The Gory Details: The party investigated some reports of a dozen rampaging Ettins in the area of Drelev. With good hope to get another key to Nyrissas realm Erin (the party's witch, maybe you recognize her from earlier obituaries of my group) teleported the party to Drelev and they began to serach the Ettins. They found them not long afterwards in the ruins of a destroyed farm. 10 Ettins were standing, eating, pillaging there and the party got them with full surprise: Fireball, Killing Cloud and Confusion prepared the Ettins for the charge of the Melee characters. All but Erin the Witch, Verbena the Druid and General Kurssuk were already charging the Ettins, as the Horned Hunter stepped out of the undergrowth and made a full-round attack against Kurrsuk (who is wearing Briar). four hits and a critical later the Satyr dropped the mighty barbarian from full HP to dead (because he wasn't in rage at that time). Kurrsuk just had two hero points which he used to cheat death.
Erin then healed him with a Healing Hex and Kendra, the Paladin of the group activated her Boots of Speed to engage the Satyr (and was quiet surprised when her Smite Evil didn't do anything...).
One of the Ettins threatened Kurssuk, who was still lying on the ground and the last two Ettins charged out of the undergrowth in which the Satyr hid and were flanking Kendra. The rest of the group made short work of that Ettin and rushed to Kendras help. Kurssuk, now in rage seeked vengeance against this fey creature (which he hates from the depth of his heart!).
Despite all tricks he had up his sleeve (including teleportation from his helm) the Horned Hunter and his Ettins wasn't able to drop Kurssuk again to get his hands on Briar. He was slain shortly after by the same Barbarian, he sought to kill.
Why do all my favorite characters have to die?!?
Because you are crunchy and taste good with mustard. Dragons don't do ketchup.
What about barbeque sauce?
Name: Feyla, Queen of Britland
Race: Aasimar
Class/Levels: Paladin of Sarenrae 9
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Throne of Bones (Vordakai's Throne Room)
Catalyst: Cyclopean Graveknight Antipaladin
The Gory Details:
I have a party of 6 players, so I use the excellent 6 player conversions available on these very forums. Despite this, my party tends to steamroll through a lot of encounters. Through clever sleight of hand, I actually managed to make them scared enough of Vordakai and his minions that they didn't notice they were mostly steamrollering this dungeon as well, with the exception of when Feyla was drained to 1 wisdom by a trap followed by soul eaters. The party managed to repair that damage by barricading themselves in a stairwell overnight while the Wizard teleported himself and Feyla home for healing.
So when they reached Vordakai's room, they were properly terrified that they would be killed. They buffed themselves thoroughly and headed in. The 6 player conversion suggests putting a Graveknight Antipaladin with Vordakai, so I did just that. The Wizard put up a Wall of Force to separate big V from the fight, and the lich was arrogant enough to sit and watch for a few rounds (his casual attitude towards the wall probably scared my players more than any spell he could have cast). The Graveknight started by attacking the rogue, since she was the first into the room, but then Feyla charged in and layed down the smiting. The Graveknight's next turn consisted of smite good plus a full attack on Feyla. Only one attack hit, but it was a critical. 110 points of damage later, Feyla was packing her bags to visit Sarenrae. The party's bard was lucky enough to be carrying a scroll of Breath of Life, though, so Feyla lived to fight another day.
This is my first PC death in a very long time, so I think I accomplished my goal of making the Vordakai fight feel like a major accomplishment. The funny thing is, I actually forgot to apply the smite bonuses and the additional fire damage from the Graveknight's weapon. If I had remembered those, Breath of Life might not have been sufficient for her to become conscious again.