|
Name: Sindri {RAISED}
Race: Human
Classes/levels: wizard (diviner) 8
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Near the Lair of the Forest Drake
Catalyst: The Forest Drake
The Gory Details: The party was ambushed and the forest drake got the drop on them with a well placed acid cloud. Sindri failed his Fortitude save. The Forest Drake took to the air using a swift action after charging the party priest and I rolled a '1' for its acid recharge. Even after a fireball caught the drake, Sindri could not predict that the drake would retaliate nor that he would fail to save versus the acid ball a second time. He fell, drowned by the caustic liquid as it filled his lungs and burned his skin. A few rounds later, the party were able to taunt the drake to ground and put it down, but Sindri was dead by then.
However, the party kept him under gentle repose and then was able to procure a raise dead scroll from Restov. As the last of the original members of the Stolen Lands Charter, and their irreplaceable Grand Diplomant, the rest of the party felt that they had to bring him back.
|
Name: Brother Matthaios
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cleric of Iomedae 2
Adventure: The Stolen Lands
Location: Frog Pond
Catalyst: Shambling Mound
The Gory Details: Things started out badly when no one noticed the shambling mound until it was too late. A full attack brought Sir Alphonse Renclod (Human Paladin of Iomedae 2, who has flirted with death no less than six times in four sessions) to -5. Brother Matthaios, being the brave soul he was, stepped up to heal Renclod. Another full attack later, Brother Matthaios was at -14 with a Con of 12; 2 past dead. Brother Matthaios left his belongings to Sir Renclod.
For the record, the party DID defeat the shambling mound after expending damn near all of their resources. Good move speeds coupled with ranged combat brought the horrid beast to the ground.
Name: Finn Highleaf
Race: Halfling, male
Classes/levels: Cleric (of Desna)/4th
Adventure: River Runs Red
Location: Mad Hermit's Tree
Catalyst: Mad Hermit's Giant Cat
The Gory Details: While the party was camping, they were attacked by a hern of wild boar. Finn highleaf using his Travel Domain was able to flee to the flank of the party while they mopped the forest floor with them.
Immediately after the boars where defeated, Finn was attacked in a surprise round by the Mad Hermit and his Giant Cat companion. The Cat reduced Finn's hp to nearly half. And unfortunately, The Mad Hermit's Cat was higher in the Initiative than the poor cleric: before he could heal himself of the damage. So the Cat took his full attack out on the wounded cleric: achieving a grapple attack in the process, taking him down to -16 hp.
Goodbye, Finn. He walks beside Desna now...
Name: Garth Lebeda (RAISED)
Race: Kobold
Classes/levels: Wizard 16
Adventure: Sound of a Thousand Screams
Location: The bridge into the House at the Edge of Time
Catalyst: Bad contingency
The Gory Details:
So, after the party engaged Ithuliak, were extremely threatened by him, did a paltry 38 damage to him and then hit him with enough Dex drain to bring him to 0, paralyzing him and then coup de gracing him, I felt a little... miffed.
So I put the players up against a real linnorm-- colossal sized CR 20 and everything, and I had him surprise them.
A massive acid breath and the party was hit for well over 100 damage-- except for the fighter, who bore a ring of evasion. The creature won init after the surprise round with it's amazing check and then landed and full attacked. People were rent and slashed and hurt, but then the linnorm went specifically for poor Garth with his poison-dripping bite.
One bite later, and Garth had taken enough damage to activate his contingency-- a resillient sphere settled on his location.
He spent the next round unconscious, dying from poison and Con drain, with an oracle with Spell Perfection (heal) and no dispel magic, greater standing 5 feet away.
The party then dispatched the linnorm very swiftly-- because placing itself directly in melee also placed it base-to-base with the fighter, who chewed it up despite failing his save versus poison.
Sadly, no one was death cursed.
Garth was reincarnated from a kobold into a half-elf again! With a polymorph any object he's turned himself back into himself, and the party has made their first foray into the House. Game should be ending next week-- let's see how they fare.
Name: Garth Lebeda (RAISED)
Race: Kobold
Classes/levels: Wizard 16
Adventure: Sound of a Thousand Screams
Location: The bridge into the House at the Edge of Time
Catalyst: Bad contingency
The Gory Details:So, after the party engaged Ithuliak, were extremely threatened by him, did a paltry 38 damage to him and then hit him with enough Dex drain to bring him to 0, paralyzing him and then coup de gracing him, I felt a little... miffed.
So I put the players up against a real linnorm-- colossal sized CR 20 and everything, and I had him surprise them.
A massive acid breath and the party was hit for well over 100 damage-- except for the fighter, who bore a ring of evasion. The creature won init after the surprise round with it's amazing check and then landed and full attacked. People were rent and slashed and hurt, but then the linnorm went specifically for poor Garth with his poison-dripping bite.
One bite later, and Garth had taken enough damage to activate his contingency-- a resillient sphere settled on his location.
He spent the next round unconscious, dying from poison and Con drain, with an oracle with Spell Perfection (heal) and no dispel magic, greater standing 5 feet away.
The party then dispatched the linnorm very swiftly-- because placing itself directly in melee also placed it base-to-base with the fighter, who chewed it up despite failing his save versus poison.
Sadly, no one was death cursed.
Garth was reincarnated from a kobold into a half-elf again! With a polymorph any object he's turned himself back into himself, and the party has made their first foray into the House. Game should be ending next week-- let's see how they fare.
In my defense, that contingency has saved me before...I just gotta tweak the health value it kicks in at!
|
Name: Ihsahn "The Mad"
Race: Human
Class: Cleric (of Nethys) 1/Wizard 1/Mystic Theurge 1
Adventure: The Stolen Land
Location: Not far from Thorn River Crossing
Catalyst: Curiosity and Overconfidence and Trolls.
The Gory Details:
During the middle of night 34, a group of Elk ran through the party's camp in a panic. Rhonin (Inquisitor of Erastil 3) and Ihsahn "the Mad" (above) decided to investigate in the direction the Elk were running from. I determined their panic would make it a nocturnal predator of some type and rolled a pair of trolls. Rhonin's pair of ones on a Perception check, and Stealth check meant he stumbled into a small area where a pair of Trolls were waiting.
Between his judgement of protection, a shield and the total defense action Rhonin managed to deflect the Trolls' every blow. Ihsahn managed to sneak up from behind and throw a bottle of oil at one Troll, and then ignite it with a wand of burning hands in the next round. Realising what the real danger was the Troll turned on Ihsahn, biting half his hit points in the first round. The next round it managed to hit with every part of its full attack killing him, the Rend was just cruel.
Rhonin played a Plot Card, and a Stag he encountered earlier (as a symbol of Erastil's favour) awakened the rest of the party, who arrived to rescued Rhonin and avenged Ihsahn 3 rounds later. He was replaced by Ulaf the Druid, who was found under the Sycamore tree the PCs are using as a makeshift graveyard.
|
|
Name: Galan
Race: Elf (formerly human, now half-elf)
Classes/levels: Ranger 7
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Lower Shrike River area
Catalyst: Poking the bear(well, dragon)
Having already vanquished the owlbear den (a tough fight) and the troll lair (a cakewalk), the party of 6 had only a few more hexes to map. To avoid a cakewalk encounter, I switched out the forest drake for a family of green dragons in the vicinity. Mom's an adult, plus 2 juveniles and a total of 30 of the 3 youngest age groups. Previously they had encountered 2 wyrmlings playing by a stream and 2 very young plus 2 young close by. The 3 surviving dragons of this group had fled.
With visions of gold dancing in their heads (especially the dwarf), they set out from Zurich 2 weeks later to find the lair, unaware of how many dragons were around. (2 gnomes, one the treasurer, hence the name Zurich) A sharp initial fight killed 5 dragons of 8 (young and very young), with the waves of channeling goodness making the difference - both gnomes are clerics.
An overnight rest and the PCs continue toward the general direction of the lair. Galan is 30 feet in the lead on horseback when he has the chance to "perceive" the lurking medium (very young)dragons in the trees across the stream (rolls a 1) and the large ones further behind them (rolls a 3). Only the 5 v.y spot him and burst from cover & breathe for a total of 20d6 - he misses 3 saves, his horse melts away, and he falls in the brush and stays prone with 4 hp remaining.
The battle carries to the other 5, a brutal affair, with both clerics and the bard down at one point, but they rally and the worst hurt of the dragons start flying away, so Galan gets up and starts picking them off! Brilliant! Er, not so much...the juvenile spots him and charges, leaving the dead hero on the ground. The surviving dragons again fly off, losing one more to another PCs parting arrow. A heroic death, and good luck attended on his reincarnation. I'm personally in awe that they only had the one death, displaying once again the power of healing when only one side has it.
|
It seems I don't take just one character out of there is a PC death.
Name: Warden Panlamin Falconsflight
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Monk of Irori 4/Fighter 2
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Candlemere Tower
Catalyst: A thirsty Munguk the Hill Giant
Name: Spymaster Tremain Marais'req
Race: Tefling
Class: Rogue 6
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Candlemere Tower
Catalyst: A thirsty Munguk the Hill Giant
The Gory Details:
The party had tricked Munguk into accompanying them to Candlemere where they said that they heard booze was available. They had hoped to use him to help them against Will O'Wisps and any other creatures that might be inhabiting the island. Once there some became sickened by the nettles or shaken by the tower's unnatural aura or in a coupe cases both. The party fought off a Will O'Wisp. Munguk was not much help, more concerned about finding alchohol in the ruined tower. His frustration boiled over when in fact there was no booze and negotiations broke down from there. A power attacking, cleaving hill giant is quite a sight especially when the opponents are dealing with sickness and fear making it more difficult to attack and defend themselves (also not rollng above a 7 on the die over a few rounds doesn't help either). Before the giant was finally killed the nation's baroness sorcereress was unconscious but stabilized and the country's warden and spymaster were smashed into little pieces. Moral of the story: do not promise a hill gint something and then not deliver.
|
Name: Hal the Cohort
Race: Human
Level: 5
Class: Fighter
Catalyst: Frag Grenades + Fireball Beads + Minimum Safe Distance
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing, at the Varnhold Stockade
Fighting off the Spriggan Tribe, the party is kind of on the ropes. The Enlarged Barbarian is down, the Fighter and Cleric are being threatened by a very dangerous Greatclub Swinging Fighter, and any AoE stuff stands a pretty good chance of hitting at least one wounded ally.
The Sorcerer's answer: Drop 5 (FIVE !!!) Fireball Beads (to be fair, it was just the whole necklace) and a Frag Grenade (2d6 fire/2d6 slashing, 10' radius) and call for Artillery support.
The party's Wizard, already Fireball happy as it is, more than happily complies. Hal, already wounded from protecting his master (the Cleric) and getting whupped by a Spriggan Fighter Boss, succumbs to the very last blast, ending at just a couple HP under -Con.
Now, the mission begins to Resurrect the Cohort.
Names: Traster, Hung Wong and Tiberius
Races: Half-Elf, Human and Human
Classes/levels: 6th Ftr., 6th Monk and 6th Inquisitor
Adventure: River Runs Red
Location: Hargulka's Cave
Catalyst: Poor decision making, bad tactics, even worse rolls and fireballs...
The Gory Details: In the final chamber, an overconfident group of 5 PC's fights Hargulka and the last 4 trolls in a massive melee. The group did not scout ahead, as they did in the earlier chambers--to their defense they thought the Two Headed Troll was the leader. The trolls surprised them, scored multiple critical hits and their tactic to hold the trolls in the room with a Tree Feather Token only enraged Hargulka to the point where he annihilated them with his Necklace of Fireballs. The Dwarven Fighter Haggis and the kingdom's leader Baron Keys both were left for dead (always save 1 hero point!) after the lone victor, Hargulka, ate his fill on their 3 companions before returning to his masters side.
As a cautionary tale, I had to share these two.
Name: Therros Fidei
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cavalier 5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: The Forgotten Keep
Catalyst: Don't Split the Party
The Gory Details: The story actually begins as the party enters the Forgotten Keep. Or perhaps I should say, the warmage enters the Forgotten Keep, because no one else did anything except wait for him to go inside. So the portcullis trap is set off, seriously injuring the warmage and trapping him inside the keep, with the other PCs outside.
Riggs Gargadilly shows up and begins to have fun with the trapped warmage, beginning his campaign of hit and fades. The warmage starts to lose the fight very quickly, and the cleric starts acting as a healbot, just casting cures on him while the ranger (who we'll get to in a second) kept trying to pull up the portcullis, and rolling terribly. The cavalier - who is the strongest character by far - decides not to assist in lifting the gates, and instead to try and find his own way into the keep, despite several pleas from the other players to help them.
So the Cavalier (atop his mount) eventually finds his way to the south entry where the wall was collapsed. The round before the warmage had finally failed his fort save against the blue whinnis and was unconscious. Riggs charges the cavalier instead, using up his last bit of poison. So the Cavalier begins a nice cat and mouse game with Riggs atop his quite mobile mount. Eventually, however, Riggs shakes him off by going around the interior of the center tower, instead of around it, as he had been customarily doing.
This confused the Cavalier, who was convinced that Riggs had gone upstairs. (By this point, the rest of the party had, by one means or another, made it over the wall and were mostly just defending the unconscious warmage.) Riggs was in fact readying to charge the party cleric at this point. So the Cavalier, after looking around a bit but not finding the faerie, decides to go upstairs.
A lone human male (confirmed heterosexual, since his wife is on the way) going up to face the baobahn sidh. Needless to say, he fails his Will save, and starts to get eaten. He manages to fight off the Dancing Lady in his first round, but she rolls lucky and manages to latch onto him on round two. That combined with the Bleed damage that the cavalier was taking was enough to drop him unconscious, where the Sidh begun to feast in private.
Name: Erestor
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Ranger 4
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: The Forgotten Keep
Catalyst: Don't Split the Party, Redux
The Gory Details: Meanwhile, the rest of the party is trying to get a handle on Riggs Gargadilly. His hit and fade attacks are working wonderfully, and the party has no idea how to deal with him. Instead of working together to form a strong plan of attack, they instead decide to split up and start searching the tower for him, I suppose hoping to get lucky.
Riggs continues to hit the party over the course of several rounds. The ranger has his animal companion guard the fallen warmage. After several rounds of back and forth, the ranger decides that Therros had been gone a darn long time, and decides to check out the tower (despite the fact that the battle with Riggs Gargadilly was still going against them.)
Hearing the approaching Ranger, the Dancing Lady stuffs the Cavalier's corpse beneath a table and starts to dance again. The ranger gets upstairs, fails his will save (I negated the -2 penalty for his being hetero- due to the fact that he spotted his friend's corpse stuffed in the corner - still rolled a 3), and because he'd been worse wounded than the cavalier had been, gets eaten two rounds later.
|
|
Note: Narrowly averted thanks to Plot Card.
Name: Rhonin
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Inquisitor of Erastil 3
Adventure: Stolen Land
Location: The Stag Lord's Fort
Catalyst: "Beaky" Advanced Owlbear (from the 6 player conversion by Alexander Kilcoyne. Two critical claws and a big mean bite.
The Gory Details:
The party sort of stumbled into charging the Fort in the middle of the night, very loudly. Rhonin ended up drawing aggro from the owlbear, one full-round attack later and Rhonin would have been dead. He used the "moment of indecision card", and Beaky became briefly distracted by the sight of a nearby delicious Gnome - negating the second two hits and leaving Rhonin unconscious in the middle of the battlefield.
|
|
Name: Talin Skyfall
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Paladin 1
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: Kressel's Bandit Camp
Catalyst: Trusting in his invulnerability
The Gory Details: The rest of the party was hiding in the nearby brush sniping back and forth with the bandits in the camp. Talin, having grown tired of waiting for them to approach, stepped out and engaged a small group of the thugs from atop his steed. A few of the closest archers opened fire on the exposed target and after catching an arrow in the armpit (6 damage) another went straight through his throat (17 damage).
Name: Sir Reginald FoeHammer (3rd appearance on this list).
Race: Gnome (this time)
Class/Level: Paladin 11th
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: The SwampsGory Details: Sir Reggie bravely led the party into the swamps, bent on retrieving the slug spit they needed to fulfill one of the quests. Unfortunately, he missed his reflex save by 1, twice in a row. So, Brave Sir Reggie, now with an effective armor class of 14 (lost both his +3 shield AND his +4 full plate), led them into the wandering monster encounter against a group (4) of unfriendly giants. It wasn't pretty, although he did kill one of the giants singlehandedly.
Came back as a: Dwarf, this time.
Just curious... does your party have a Druid for a healer, or does the player just think it's fun to do reincarnate instead of raise dead? (Reincarnate can be fun, don't get me wrong. I recall once my namesake character (the Archmage Atrus) was reincarnated as a talking/spellcasting badger... this was back in 3rd edition when the reincarnation table wasn't limited to humanoids.)
Do the denizens of their kingdom got used to king changing his race on a regular basis? Hopeful they do not got so jaded by it to make gambles on king's race next month? (hint-hint ;)
When the king/treasurer make national "Royal Race Of The Month" lottery as an additional source of revenue for the crown it will be clear sign it is the time to apply unrest for repeated changes of ruler, however.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
When the king/treasurer make national "Royal Race Of The Month" lottery as an additional source of revenue for the crown it will be clear sign it is the time to apply unrest for repeated changes of ruler, however.
Personally, I wouldn't apply Unrest, since that could be seen as unfairly raising the goal post (IE, you're adding a rule to penalize them that didn't exist before.)
However, I would get mighty clever, and create myself an enterprising NPC that, after carefully studying the king to make sure he can pass himself off as him for a bit, simply appear one day while the party's away adventuring and pose for a few days, empty the coffers, and walk away with the treasure trove.
He is deathoholic, isn't he?
It just occured to me that reincarnate should also include roll for sex of new body.
Name: Ranson
Race: Half-Orc
Classes/levels: Paladin 4
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: The Forgotten Keep
Catalyst: Caught between a Grimstalker and Assassin Vine
The Gory Details: While other of the party managed to stay outside of flanking from the Grimstalker, our Paladin wasn't able to get out of the way. Already weakened by the curse of the Baobhan Sith they had slain, the Paladin went into the fight short on Strength. Hit by two claws from the Grimstalker in vital parts of his body, the assassin vine landed a vicious attack that outright killed Ranson. By the next round, Ranson's body was strewn about the room as the Assasin Vine ripped the body apart.
|
|
Name Ranger Jon
Where The Ruined Keep
When Smack in the middle of Rivers Run Red
Class / Level Human Ranger 4/Rogue 1
The Gory Details: Having gotten to the Ruined Keep in relatively good order, the group proceeded to do everything they could to get killed in the most embarrassing fashion possible. To wit: the fighter knocked the gate portcullis down on his head, we had almost no AoE damage effects (total of 2 Alchemist Fire…that’s it) and opened the door to the swarm tower, got flanked easily by a vine & creepy elfish fey dude, and deliberately tasted the weird poison gas from a trapped room.
We survived all that, having lots of laughs and good RP interaction, and then walked up a certain flight of stairs. Little Ms. Creepy Irish Fey-chick proceeded to enthrall the entire party with her sultry Christina Applegate moves. Cue the black screen of “game over,” right?
Well, yes and no…
Poor Jon (my PC) got to have his Str and Con sucked from him over the next 4 or 5 rounds, sitting in a chair with an evil fey baddie wiggling all over, with a stupid grin on his face. Con hit 0 before Str, so at least I died before I passed out. He died a good death, in some ways, but still perma-death nonetheless.
On the way back to Oleg’s, ready to turn all our hard earned coin/treasure into reincarnate and restoration scrolls, the party (sans the primary ranged damage dealer) encounters a shambling mound. Mounted, full of treasure, and bringing around a “bait pig” since level 1, the party’s fighter still charges the horrible plant monster.
Name Kurt, the Fighter
Where A few hexes SW of Olegs
When Smack in the middle of Rivers Run Red
Class / Level Half-Orc Fighter 5
The Gory Details: As the shambling mound wanted food more than to kill us dead, he happily munched on the Large horse Kurt rode. Slam/Slam/Grapple/Constrict later, and the 15 HP mount became plant chow. Kurt tumbled to the ground and fell prone, with the lichen o’ doom still right on top of him. Electing to stand up, he caught an AoO which grappled him and did bunches of damage. Our healer tried her best, but wisely stayed well away from the tentacles and pain. Another full attack left Kurt at exactly –Con, the Sorcerer and Cleric invisible and holding hands, and our “bait pig” running (and squealing) at top speed away from the monster. Predictably, the hungry critter took off after “Ol’ Baity,” allowing the two gnomes to retrieve the bits and pieces remaining of Kurt.
Back at Oleg’s, after some considerable downtime, the two spellcasters made reincarnate scrolls and [/i]restoration[/i] scrolls. Both Kurt and Jon came back, with much rejoicing. Jon rolled Half-Elf, losing exactly nothing and gaining some neat little upgrades (. Kurt, the Half-Orc, reincarnated as a……Half-Orc.
All told, despite () the deaths, it was a very good night of adventurin’.
Name: "Frost Woman" (no actual name figured out), Queen of the Barony of Starfall
Race: advanced human
Classes/levels: Fighter 1 /Sorcerer (water) 7 / Eldritch Knight 4
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: The Lonely Barrow
Catalyst: Breath of Despair, CR 8 version
The Gory Details: (optional)
Her Majesty made the unfortunate decision to take point without benefit of death ward. One critical and three regular enervations totaling 15 temporary negative levels resulted in an "I feel weak..." before falling over very, very dead. Needless to say, the necessity to save against exhausted/fatigued was quite moot.
A "technical death" was claimed by Da Cultist for being implanted by an Elder Monstrosity Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing and having to utilize the breath of life armor property to survive two rounds' of constrictions. Sadly, they managed to gut him and remove the egg sac the same day ...
|
|
Name: Carradoc, Ingra, Tillith, Kazgrym
Race: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Dwarf
Classes/Levels: Fighter5, Paladin5, Bard5, Cleric5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Ancient Elven Keep
Catalyst: The Dancing Lady (ain't she pretty!)
The Gory Details: 3 of 4 failed their saves against the "facinate" ablity. The cleric managed to save, and engaged in melee, but couldn't do enough damage quickly enough. Not only that, the only spells he had were all buff or damage spells, that wouldn't have had much effect anyways.
T.P.K.!!!
Name: Celeste
Race: Gnome
Classes/levels: Druid 5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Owlbear Lair
Catalyst: I'll burn it's toes.
The Gory Details: The party takes out the owlbear with Celeste shooting her bow the first few rounds then casting her only Produce Flame spell just as the owlbear falls. So she burns it's toes so the spell wasn't a waste. Fast forward a few minutes. Celeste is exploring a small passageway to see where it goes and "discovers" the pit trap with green slime at the bottom. The party pulls her up using an attached rope, but with the Produce Flame spell gone, the party has no way to destroy the green slime and they end up watching their friend die.
|
|
Name: Elaine of Shelyn
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Druid 2/Wizard 1
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: The Stag Lord's Fort
Catalyst: Being Human
The Gory Details: After being alerted by the cries of Beaky the Stag Lord climbed atop his fort to get a look at the adventurers that had the gall to stall his shipments of booze and attack him directly. He notched an arrow and aimed at the summoner whose birds were tearing his archers to bits but missed his chance as the coward took cover. Cursing in frustration he aimed instead at the young Elaine and loosed an arrow that went straight through her weak (and tragically human) heart.
Longbow crits hurt.
|
|
Name: General Alastair Cadwallader
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Order of the Sword Cavalier 12/Fighter 3 Two-Handed Weapon
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: Dungeons of Pitax Keep
Catalyst: Too Damn brave and never knew how to back down.
Alastair landed on the roof of castle Pitax and brought devastation down on the unfortunate guardsmen he encountered with his mastery of two-handed weapons. He never encountered the king of Pitax but successfully found the parties lost gear and brought it with him after he beat a guard into telling him where the dungeons were. Once in the dungeon he broke some of his companions free and attempted to hold off the gargoyle and its pets. He succeeded up until the weretiger and Iro's barbarian burst on the scene in full form, ordering his companions to flee he fought several of the big named npc's and met his end when the badly injured were tiger got a hold of him and started to disembowel him. When he faked dying she turned her back and he ran her through with his greatsword killing her as well (No Chivalry in that!). He was bleeding out in the dungeon when Iro strolled in and finished him off.
|
|
Name: General Alastair Cadwallader
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Order of the Sword Cavalier 12/Fighter 3 Two-Handed Weapon
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: Dungeons of Pitax Keep
Catalyst: Too Damn brave and never knew how to back down.
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **...
wow...great playing, and great story!
|
|
Not as great as your campaign sounds lol. I've been following your stuff for awhile =) good stuff.
But Ya overhand chop, power attack, furious focus, the cleave tree and strength in the high 20's makes for a nasty night especially when he was rolling dang crit's all night, lowest I saw him roll was a 15 on the d20 lol... He even used my dice so I know nothing was rigged. But MY rolls sucked hard core. Although I did feel like a jerk by one shotting him with Iro at the end. xD
Sorry I won't hijack the thread any longer ^^;
Name: Celeste
Race: Gnome
Classes/levels: Druid 5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Owlbear Lair
Catalyst: I'll burn it's toes.
The Gory Details: The party takes out the owlbear with Celeste shooting her bow the first few rounds then casting her only Produce Flame spell just as the owlbear falls. So she burns it's toes so the spell wasn't a waste. Fast forward a few minutes. Celeste is exploring a small passageway to see where it goes and "discovers" the pit trap with green slime at the bottom. The party pulls her up using an attached rope, but with the Produce Flame spell gone, the party has no way to destroy the green slime and they end up watching their friend die.
Let this be a lesson to players. Always take knowledge checks that are pertinent to the campaign. Cutting away the slime would have worked. Yeah it will hurt, but it feels better than con damage.
PS:Have the weakest party member do the slicing. You don't want the guy with the great axe digging into you. :)
|
|
Name: Queen Rilani Astin Martin
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cavalier 8
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Vordakai's Feasthall
Catalyst: Flash of Insight x4
The Gory Details: In the Feasthall, the party encountered 5 Advanced Dread Zombie Cyclops. With clever use of Consecrate, Wall of Fire, Solid Fog, and covering positions, the group was able to limit the access each monster had to the melee PC's. Unfortunately, Rilani had left herself as the only real threat/target in the middle of the room.
2 pairs of the baddies each got to use their Flash of Insight to "Nat-20" the sad cavalier, with only 1 able to confirm its crit. That one, however, managed to drop the Queen to exactly 1 less than her -Con score.
Altrum managed to get close enough to Breath of Life the lass back to life, leaving her with a negative level.
Name: Headsman Hestia the Dwarf
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Barbarian 8
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Vordakai's Inner Sanctum
Catalyst: Flash of Insight, Smite Good, and Antipaladin Levels
The Gory Details: Up against Big V, and Little V (the excellent "Kingmaker for 6 Players" minion guy), Hestia squared off and delivered quite a whooping on Little V but good. Unfortunately, rolling a pair of 19's on the last round of attacks brought her to dead-dead and beyond saving for the moment.
Poor Dwarf got cut in half. A few days later (after scribing a few Reincarnate scrolls,) up pops Hestia the Gnome. Unacceptable, she fed a Death Knell from the hands of Altrum, and died again. A second Reincarnate later, and Hestia the Human arose anew, if 4 negative levels lower.
Name: Magister Giles the Evil Wizard
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Evoker 8
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Vordakai's Inner Sanctum
Catalyst: Will Save to disbelieve, Fort Save to negate. Oh well...
Big V, knowing he's on his way out, and having his offer of employment spurned by the megalomaniacal Magister, dumped his one and only Phantasmal Killer into the madman. Having dropped his own Con and Wis fairly signifcantly, he actually managed to fail both saves.
Discontent with coming back and NOT being a demon, Giles refused to be raised from the dead. Stuck in the Soul Jar carried by Big V himself, the player's new Oracle of Life, Brunner, emerged onto the scene.
Unacceptable, she fed a Death Knell from the hands of Altrum, and died
That. Is. Awesome.
I had the War of the High Folly take place at the same time-- we're eschewing mass combat completely as my players instantly won it and all future conflicts with their single simplistic tactic.
This is quite OT, but could you describe what that simplistic tactic was and if you think that there is something which can be done about it? Maybe over in the Mass Combat thread, so we don't derail here? My own Kingmaker campaign will be coming up in about two months or so, and I'd like to be prepared.
Name: Baron Meliathas of Medvyed and Galadon
Race: half-elf and human
Classes/levels: paladin 7 and cleric 5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: V3. Cave of the Shambler
Catalyst: grappling a shambler while a swarm is crawling over the heroes
The Gory Details: The rulers of Medvedonia heard rumors of a wandering giant in Crownhill the capital of their barony. They searched the southern Kamelands and found the cave of the owlbear who had been devastating Crownhill during the heroes' search for the giant and just returned. Fleeing the cave in terror the PCs ran into a search party from back home: the cleric Galadon along with the other followers of Baron Meliathas. Together they faced the charging owlbear and defeated it.
After the fight the PCs cleared the caves without any problems up to the green slime trap. The holy powers of Erastil could save both the paladin and the cleric, but they were weakened to a point of give-up. After a night of sleep and enough healing magic they returned to clear the last chamber.
Having faced shamblers on some other occasions before they were contend to slay the monster after the swarm. (Our players hate swarms since their first encounter with one of them!) Hesitantly damaging the swarm with alchemist's fire they underestimated the strength of the shambler and the disadvantage of the small cave. Baron Meliathas escaped the grapple, but his cohort Galadon got grabbed during their escape from the green thing. Trying to rescue his comrade the ruler of Medvedonia lost his live along with his follower.
Race: Human
Classes/levels: rog3/wiz2
Adventure: Rivers run red
Location: The troll fortress
Catalyst: returning to finish off the rock troll and the troll boss
The Gory Details: the day started off easy enough. the party back-tracked some trolls who attacked them to the troll fortress. the brazenly stormed the fort. the party smashed their way into the fortress and into the natural caverns without too much dificulty. they started having trouble when they met the two-headed troll who severly beat them and almost killed the party's monk. they healed a little (literally) and continued in to fight the boss troll (missing the rock troll. they took another beating and made a quick getaway.
the following morning they re-entered the fort, only to be ambushed by the boss troll and the rock troll. the party managed to kill the rock troll eventually, and then cast create pit under the boss troll (who failed his check and fell in. unfortunately however, the rog/wiz fell in too and was swiftly dispatched. the boss troll was killed while still in the pit.
first death in my campaign. so far, so good. sorry, couldn't recall the troll's names.
|
|
Names of the Dead:
Fijitor, hobgoblin (reincarnated gnome) druid 8
Duavel, halfling (reincarnated elf) fighter 6 (cohort)
Nemijian, large cat animal companionLocation: Owlbear lair, climax of Blood for Blood
How it Went Down: My PCs are higher than normal level, so I had advanced the owlbear with the giant template and gave him about 20 extra hp, so he was a GARGANTUAN owlbear. The PCs had distracted him by creating a disturbance in the back cave (the spider/ettercap cave rear entrance) with Fijitor the druid while the rest of the party went in the front door. They triggered the shriekers, which brought out the giant spiders and the shambling mound with the embedded swarm, which did pretty well at nickel and diming the party. The shambling mound even got zapped with an electricity effect by the unsuspecting PCs (don't get to use that ability very often). Eventually the owlbear responded to the sounds of battle out front. The druid, in earth elemental form, earth glided after him. Some PCs used missiles vs. the owlbear, others moved up to melee. I think I may have given the owlbear combat reflexes just to be mean, cuz a couple of AoOs shocked and horrified the PCs with their sheer damage - including snatching Duavel right off of the tiger's back as he charged to attack. The cat kept attacking, so the owlbear dropped the grappled fighter and ripped the cat apart, then crushed Duaval with an AoO when he tried to advance back into melee range. The druid had been using spells on the owlbear but had to follow him into the central cavern and got a little too close and *WHOMP*. Fortunately for him, a last pair of scorching rays downed the owlbear and he was able to be rescued just in the nick of time.
And now Duavel is a gnome (reincarnated halfling, reincarnated elf) fighter 7! :)
Note: With these three casualties, one player basically accomplished a clean sweep of having his character, his cohort, and his animal companion all killed in the same battle by...
Who's bright idea was it to put a swarm inside that. We just leveled to 6th and happened to spot the intrance. my fighter goes in sets off shriekers. so we are fighting mushroon people, when mound and than owlbear join the fun. mound hits for 14, grabs so constict 14. next round maintain and sucked in-16 and 7 from swarm(had a great scary moment there). but 4d6+5? a round is hurtful even for a 77hp fighter with 25cmd vs grapple and a healing belt. got out with 4 points only to have swarm chase and drop-any other character and they would have been dead. REALLY, REALLY HATE giant plants.
Who's bright idea was it to put a swarm inside that. REALLY, REALLY HATE giant plants.
*smiles*
I certainly did not have the idea of such a symbiontic monster, but just to see the faces melt away from all the bestiary reading players... priceless.Ruyan.
|
Name: General Dacra Hanella
Race: Human
Class/level: Barbarian 4
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: The town of Corica
Catalyst: Evil dice (as usual...)
The Gory Details: After only a few months of developing their little domain, the group heard that a werewolf was terrorizing the region's only town, Corica. At night, they set several patrols to try and catch the beast. The barbarian and the cleric patrolled together and spotted the monster. On the first round, Dacra was hit twice. The cleric could've healed her, but since she still had 40 hit points, he thought she could be all right for a bit and cast Bless instead.
The next round, Kundal critted Dacra with his greataxe, rolling 10, 11 and 12 on his d12's for damage. She took 54 points of damage, bringing her exactly to negative constitution... :(
As she is a valued member of the group (being the primary damage dealer and the cleric's lover), General Dacra was later raised from the dead at great personal cost to the entire group.
Update: Oh, and later, while playing the kingdom management for the month when Dacra died, the event rolled for that month was "Assassination Attempt". One of the aforementioned evil d12's was rolled to randomly roll who, among the 11 rulers, would be the victim of the attempt. Of course, it came up as... Dacra...
I can imagine the scene:
Evil-looking man dressed all in black, holding a dagger dripping with poison: "Excuse me, have you seen a brown-haired woman with a greatsword, about 6'3", usually sleeps in that bedroom at the end of the hall?"
Old servant: "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, sir, you just missed her. I'm afraid to say that she was slain by a werewolf earlier tonight. Perhaps I could offer you to assassinate our Treasurer or our Grand Diplomat instead?"
Update: Oh, and later, while playing the kingdom management for the month when Dacra died, the event rolled for that month was "Assassination Attempt". One of the aforementioned evil d12's was rolled to randomly roll who, among the 11 rulers, would be the victim of the attempt. Of course, it came up as... Dacra...
I can imagine the scene:
Evil-looking man dressed all in black, holding a dagger dripping with poison: "Excuse me, have you seen a brown-haired woman with a greatsword, about 6'3", usually sleeps in that bedroom at the end of the hall?"
Old servant: "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, sir, you just missed her. I'm afraid to say that she was slain by a werewolf earlier tonight. Perhaps I could offer you to assassinate our Treasurer or our Grand Diplomat instead?"
I would start to think about giving group hints that the werewolf presence in the city wasn't accident and instead it was sent there by someone counting upon werewolf killing someone of the country's leadership after such roll.
Name: Rogar Trollsbane Grunyar
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Ranger 7
Name: Lucius Vane
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Fighter (Phalanx Soldier) 4/Diviner (Foresight) 1
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: The Dead Noble
Catalyst: Many failed will saves
The Gory Details: To spice things up a bit, I decided to make the dead noble not killed by falling into some crevice, but instead caught by a hangman tree (CR7 - Bestiary 2). When the party discovered the man hanging from the tree on the outskirts of town, their first reaction was (naturally) to search the body. Once everyone was within fifty feet of the plant, however, it released its hypnotic spores and everyone failed the DC 20 will save. After grappling the three melee-oriented characters, many made their saves and the battle began in earnest. Lucius was quickly swallowed while Rogar failed too many will saves and was near death before he could even attempt to break the grapple. A good knowledge check allowed them to discover that it had a weakness to lighning and a couple bolts later, it was a smoking husk. Unfortunately, it was already too late for the poor dwarf and half-elf who were constricted into the neighbourhood of -20hp.
|
|
Name: Kurt, da Fighter
Race: Half-Orc
Classes/levels: Fighter 6
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Hargulka's Cave, the Throne Room
Catalyst: Triple Damage Crit, and then some
The Gory Details:
Most of the troll fights were fairly easy going. Arrows, lucerne hammers, and spells flew every which way, and most of the baddies ended up with splattered heads and very tiny acid burns (Acid Splash on -50 or -75 hp trolls is fairly effective, after all).
Hargulka, on the other hand, managed a Nat-20 / Nat-19 crit on the BSF Kurt, who had been dishing out the pain all night long. Pulling from the Crit Cards, he got Solid Blow, dealing triple damage (plus thundering) on the first swing.
That deafened poor Kurt, but the bite and claw follow-up swings were what took him to -21 or so. With a 14 Con, he fell to the beast, only to be avenged soon after. Hideous Laughter vs. trolls turns out to be even better than acid, after all.
He was Reincarnated afterwards, and for the life of me, I can't remember what he came back as (Half-Orc, maybe?)
Yesterday the first death of the campaign occured:
Name: Narm Faulk
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Fighter 5
Adventure: RRR
Location: Hargulka's Stronghold, beside the "dinner table"
Catalyst: being hit by a vital strike when already low on hp
The Gory Details: the party just had a hard fight with some of Hargulka's trolls, trollhounds and Nagrundi when the Big Boss decided to punish the intruders. He entered the combat with his personal guard (2 troll barbarians I added), and his first attack hit Narm (who was already low on hp at this time) for 30 damage killing him instantly.
Character: Baron Blackshield, Dwarf Ranger 5
Location: Wilderness, near the Lonely Barrow
Details: Trolls attack the party's camp at night. The Baron conceals himself in some brush for a counter-ambush. The sorcerer casts an illusionary Wall of Fire, splitting the troll group in half but unknowingly trapping the Baron on the far side of the wall. The Baron fails to solo a troll, and is taken from bloodied to dead with a max-damage crit.
Name: Karumkorum
Race: Gnome
Classes/levels: Alchemist 2
Adventure: The Stolen Land
Location: Mites' Lair
Catalyst: Overconfidence, good monster initiative rolls, and a missing player
The Gory Details: I guess it begins with a missing player. I have a rule that when a player is missing, his/her PC takes no part in the night's activities even if I have to explain it with wildly illogical improbabilities. So when Kirk, player of the half-orc meatshield fighter, missed the session where the PCs were going to descend into the mite lair, well, Gren the Fighter stayed outside to watch the horses.
Descending against the mites were Karumkorum the gnome alchemist 2, Mitya the human druid 2 and her wolf companion Viktor, Lupan the human bard 3, and Alfred the human fighter (archer archetype) 3. You may notice that there is no real melee combatant (due to Gren's absence) and no channel-healer in that group.
The first several chambers were easy enough, with the mites proving nothing more than irritants and the regular giant centipedes being irksome only because of their poisoning of Lupan. In fact the mites in each room had a tendency to bunch up protectively, making them easy prey for Karumkorum (who consistently rolled the best initiative through these chambers) to kill bunches of them with his bombs.
However, mites may be pathetic but they're not complete idiots, and when he heard all the explosions and screams Grabbles had sent a runner back to summon reinforcements from the chamber of torments, including all the mites there and the giant whiptail centipede, which took some coaxing to get out of the crevasse.
The reinforcement had not yet arrived when the PCs broached Grabbles' chamber, however -- I figured they'd come in six rounds. And given that none of the other fights in the lair had gone past three rounds, I figured the PCs would have no problem dispensing of the mite leader and his tick before the whiptail and his cadre arrived.
Unfortunately for the PCs, they rolled poorly on their initiatives. Even more unfortunately, the mites and the tick each rolled 19.
Now, even this wouldn't have been THAT bad, but Karumkorum was an impetuous sort who tended to lead the way, and therefore he was right up front when Tickleback pounced. The gnome was grappled.
Suddenly the fight was very difficult indeed, because Karumkorum had done most of the damage to the little blue irritants thus far. They all took their best shots but Tickleback was tough, and Karumkorum dropped to six points from dead the next round. He failed to stabilize as the fight raged on, and Viktor the wolf took a critical hit from Tickleback an instant before the tick was slain. Lupan stepped over to the fallen gnome and cast Cure Light Wounds, bringing Karumkorum back to one point --
Just as the whiptail charged into the room at the head of a small horde of mites. With only one spot open to attack, the centipede raced up to the newly awakened Karumkorum and killed him outright with a single bite.
That was the cue to beat feet, and the PCs spent Hero Points to move out of turn and flee. The centipede was hot in pursuit but paused to kill Viktor the wolf. In a brutal fight at the exit the three remaining PCs managed to escape, though all three were terribly injured. The survivors limped back to Oleg's to lick their wounds and collect a new companion, the lovely elven cavalier Tsaara, who assisted them in wreaking a just vengeance upon the mites a few days later.
Name: Vincent 'de Wolf'
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Ranger6
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Varnhold
Catalyst: Chuul in the rivercrossing
The Gory Details: While the party was crossing the river in Varnhold, the Chuul emerges from the water. After snapping the Wolf Companion, Fang (the 5th), of the ranger in half, the Chuul easily gobbled the ranger, paralyzing him and chewing him to fine bits.
The Chuul then tried to swim away with it's two tasty snacks. The Companion of our druid however; a crocodile, was luckily able to finish the Chuul of and drag the corpse of the ranger out of the water. Afterwards, he was resurrected at Restov (the party didn't have acces to the scroll in the church of Varnhold at this point..).
Surprisingly, this was only our first death in the AP.
Fixed for you ;), good read anyway
Catalyst: Overconfidence, good monster initiative rolls, and a missing player, and having player characters at different levels.
Since PCs only get XP when they're there to participate, it's inevitable. :-) But up to that point, the 2nd-level Karumkorum had done by far the most damage. And had he gone before Tickleback there would have been no problem with the fight. And had the squishy alchemist not been in front, there also would have been no problem. :-D