Name: Baron Alezandru Romoz
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Fighter 6
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Owlbear Den
Catalyst: Freaking big Owlbear
The Gory Details:
In an, unfortunately successful, attempt to protect the group's wizard. Baron Romoz rushed to engage the Owlbear. The wizard luckily managed to wriggle out of the owlbear's clutches, it then turned its attention towards the baron. It promptly grabbed him, and then tore him to ribbons.
An amusing quote from the situation.
"Well, that was my standard action. For my move action, I'm going to cry."
-Me, after failing to escape the owlbear's grapple. Seconds before being ripped apart
Our first PC death.
Name: Sylus Deckland, Spymaster of Calrissian
Race: Human
Class/Level: Rogue (Scout archetype) 7
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Troll Lair
Catalyst: Party separation, really crappy rolls (stealth and saves) vs. really good rolls (perception and crits with the crit deck) from a pissed off Rock-Troll
The Gory Details:
Life has been good to this point. Sylus was a hardcore alcoholic who continually managed to make friends with the neighboring creatures by getting drunk and partying with them (kobolds, boggards, lizard folk, multitudes of fey… all drinking buddies with Sylus and our kingdom).
In times of danger, Sylus would often sneak ahead with his ridonculous stealth skills to scout ahead and let any potential enemies pass him by, engage the rest of us, and take up perfect flanking position. After going through a thin passage into a tower, he heard trolls coming down from above. He hid under the stairs there. One troll passed him by and started to squeeze down the passage to the rest of us (the plan was to catch them in a crossfire within the thin passage). Unfortunately, while the party started to engage the first troll squeezing in the passageway, the Rock-Troll smelled something human hiding behind the stairs it just came down. Realizing he was caught, Sylus stabbed at it from the darkness. Roaring in pain, and the group a good 12 seconds away, it turned and nearly disemboweled him with a massive bite (critical hit = crushed intestines card - normal damage plus 1d4 con bleed (rolled 4 each time), save every round to negate the bleed).
Sylus started to vomit blood while trying to hold his guts inside himself (failed his save every round until he died). The rest of us made as quick work of the first troll as possible, then started to pile into the tower to try and distract the beast in order to give Sylus either a chance to escape and/or get the cleric in to reverse the hurt. Our cleric was fairly far off and had to double move to get close enough to do anything, but this troll was smart and decided to finish off the easy prey before dealing with the rest of us (full attack + rend vs an already hurt rogue with a current Constitution score of 6 and still bleeding away).
Plans for a monument and festivals in his honor are already in the making (even though no one knew of him save the ruling class).
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Well, here are my 2 cents on the subject:
Name: Justus
Race: Human
Classes/levels: 2nd lvl paladin of erastil
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: somewhere in the hills south of Olegs
Catalyst: random enconter
The Gory Details:
After been ambushed by a wolf pack in the end of last night the party of adventures decide to follow their tracks to make sure that threat is delt with and to look for some loot. They arrive at a cave mouth with tracks from diverse small sized wolf like creatures and a big one, we wore proptly ambushed by a worg. On the round that it took for us to dismount our non-war horses we wore already on man down.
On the following massacre only the bard manage to escape. He fascinated the worg while popping a CLW potion on the ranger who pic up the remaining party menbers corpses, put them on the last remaining horse and run away. Quickly followed by the bard who back tracked to the limit of his spell range and and flat out run. The poor paladin was at the time under the worg been torn to pices, which prevented him from been rescued as well.
Name: Temil
Race: human
Classes/levels: 3rd lvl alchemist
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: Stag lord's fort
Catalyst: been really, really dumb
The Gory Details:
Midnight, after discovering that the hills around stag lord's ******spoiler*******and have their sneak attempt ruined the party (of 5) decide to CHARGE THE FORTRESS! 25 rounds later and a lot of zombies they are at the edge of the 30 foot clearing in the fort's entrance. Arrows have been rainning down on them for quite a while, its been very hard to hit them but there have been some natural 20s.
They decide that the dwarven warrior is going to charge the gate using full defense to attract the fire while the alchemist will sneak behind him and toss his improved alchemist fire at the gate to start it on fire. All very well except the stag lord was reading his action to wait for the first human (his favored enemy) to enter in his sneak atq range. And there it comes the human Alchemist, Stag lord rolls a critical on his sneak ataq, confirms his critical and the Alchemist turn into pink mist. Instant death one-shotted.
Ahhh...those wore the days...(i was the GM on that one).
Name General Vladimir Ustinov Jaroslav
Race Human
Class/Level Cavalier 1/Fighter (roughrider) 3
Adventure Rivers Run Red
Location The Lonely Barrow
Catalyst Energy drained to (un)death by the Lonely Warrior
The Gory Details It had been a close call for Vlad before, when he decided to jump into the centipede chasm together with the whiptail centipede in the Mite Lair, thereby making it impossible for him to withdraw when his HP started getting low.
This time he decided to take on the Lonely Warrior by himself, while the rest of the party was tied up with the skeletons. When the summoners eidolon joined the fight with the cairn wight Vlad also made the unfortunate decision to move into flanking position, which made it impossible for him to withdraw without provoking a AoO from the wight. After incurring three negative levels he still tried to make a run for it, but the wight managed to hit him one last time.
After rising to unlife under his new master he was promptly killed again by his former companions.
'Fitz' to his friends, human lvl 2 fighter aldori weapon master, Stolen Lands.
Only two hexes away from a safe return to Oleg's after a month in the wild exploring around the borders of their charter, rolled a 4 troll random encounter.
I did it as a distant sighting the party could safely ignore, but instead they decided to set up a defensive position mined with Breegs beartraps and their lamp oil supplies, and have the cavalier lure them in. Everybody else climbed and hid out of the way to harass with ranged weapons, leaving only Fitz to hold the line.
It worked amazingly well, unlucky troll rolls keeping them alive as the cavalier worked to separate and stagger their approach, except that the party forgot to cauterize the trolls that were temporarily dropped with weapon damage. As the last troll before him dropped to a precise bomb, the one behind him popped up and tore poor Fitz asunder with two crit claws plus rend plus bite.
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Name: Magnus the Red, Marshall of Wulfenstein,
Race: Dwarf
Class/Level: Cleric of Torag 9
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Valley of the Dead
Catalyst: Dread Zombie Cyclops munches brains!
The Gory Details
Magnus tried to get in front of the column to try and support General Torkemada who was fighting one dread zombie with two other party members, including the Duchess Sendara. Before Duke Yuri could intervene, the second dread cyclops charged the dwarf, then the next round got full attack actions, by the time the bite came up, poor Magnus was already dying and helpless. His brain was subsequently eaten after a low Fort save. He (well his positive channels) will be missed.
Jesus, people need to give players a break when they roll high on the random encounter chart!Coming from a GM's perspective, I'd say the player's need to give us a break when we roll high on the encounter charts!
GM: There's a rustling in the grass to your right. As you look closer, you realize it's a werewolf ready to pounce. If you run away right now you can probably-
1st level PCs: CHARGE!!!
GM: *facepalm*
I had a group of 6 players in my game. All level one at the time. Had a fighter, barbarian, paladin, monk, wizard, and bard.
I rolled an owlbear. Now. They could of taken it, but when it charged.
The fighter, the barbarian, and even the stupid paladin ran away. Owlbear reached the squishies. Almost murdered them completely, when the -tanks- of the party finally returned.
The bard threatened them with a story of how the brave and strong fighters of the party turned tail and ran upon first sight of the dreaded monster.
Needless to say. They players have put up bounties for owlbears killed in part two..
Name: Caesar, animal companion of Waren Menolly of Wolfenstein (Beast Master 6)
Race: Wolf
Class/Level: -
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: The Midden in the Owlbears' Lair
Catalyst: being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a Shambling Mound crawling with centipedes
The Gory Details
After an unsuccessful attempt to smoke the owlbear out of his cave (the smoke killed the spiders and drove away the ettercaps), the party entered the lair.
In the midden, they were surprised by the shriekers and attacked by the violet fungi. While they were chopping apart the attackers, the shambling mound joined the fight.
Unfortunately for Caesar, he was standing right in front of the corridor leading to the shambler's lair, so he became the prime target. The first slam hit, the grapple succeeded, the next round brought constrict and swarm damage, and a failed save against distraction. The other party members tried to kill the mound, but were too slow. Next round, Caesar succumbed to another round of constrict and swarm damage.
But there was no time for mourning, as the owlbear charged into the fray...
Name: Alfred Medved
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Ranger 3
Adventure: The Stolen Land
Location: Stag Lord's Fort (Haunted Hillside)
Catalyst: Splitting the party
The Gory Details: Driven by the harrowing nightmares of Davik Nettles, the party arrived at the Stag Lord's fort, discovered the good vantage point, and staked the place out. They quickly realized that the back of the hill seemed not only to provide better cover, but also that the schlub in the rear tower wasn't paying a bit of attention to the hill. After a bit of preliminary scouting, the group decided on a plan whereby they would all sneak to the base of the hill in the rear in the dark of night, Alfred the ranger (backed by Lupan the bard as insurance) would sneak up the hill and kill the rear guard with arrows before he could raise an alarm, and then the whole group would go over the wall and slaughter the bandits in their bunks.
Hilarity ensued.
Halfway up the hill the zombies struck. Under a rain of laughter from the fort, Alfred and Lupan endeavored to hold their positions (I'm not entirely sure why) while the others raced up to meet them. However, given that everyone was operating on a steep, rocky slope under conditions of near-total darkness, I imposed a DEX roll for each character on each turn to see if they could move at full or half speed for the turn (the zombies suffered the same) but, given the easy DC I set and the fact that the party generally has stellar Dexterity, I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. Boy was I wrong. The players commenced a long series of tragically subpar rolls (something like a dozen failures in a row, IIRC) and I commenced a long series of critical hits threats.
Before anyone could get to their aid, Lupan was in trouble. Alfred dropped his bow (the reward from Vekkel Benzen for killing Tuskgutter) and tried to fend the undead off with his shortsword, but discovered that the Piercing damage done by the shortsword was no better than the Piercing damage done by his arrows, and indeed worse since there was a lot less of it. A couple of confirmed critical hits later (we're using the Critical Hit deck, so one of them knocked his teeth down his throat) and he was in deep trouble. By then everyone had managed to join the fray, but two more waves of zombies had joined the jamboree and a general retreat was called. The party was being steadily attritted and was out of healing (they rely on a druid and a bard for their healing, which is a poor substitute for channels at a time like this).
In spite of the fact that he was down to low single digits of HP, Alfred was unwilling to abandon his prized bow, and while he was circling around to pick it up, he was criticaled yet again by a zombie and killed outright. In all, I critical hit five times with the zombies against zero fumbles; the PCs critical hit and fumbled once as a group.
In a running battle, the rest of the party managed to gain the safety of the ground and left the zombies behind. They're mauled and out of spells. That's where the session ended.
I'm debating whether to have the bandits sally immediately at the beginning of the next session in an effort to finish them off. Logically it's what they would do, but it seems a bit...harsh.
Finally an entry in this! My group is two thirds of the way through Rivers Run Red and suffered their first casualty. They actually nearly had multiple casualties last night due to a wyvern random encounter at night that had half the party down, but narrowly avoided any fatalities. The actual fatality occurred at the hands of the hodag.
Name: Deathstripe
Race: Tiger
Classes/Levels: Animal Companion of 5th level Druid
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Right outside the hodag cave
Catalyst: Full Attack from enraged hodag
The Gory Details: The party, while exploring the forest, came across the hodag den. The hodag (made advanced due to large party) detected them coming - not hard since there are seven of them, three in heavy or medium armor, and all of them were mounted, except the druid whose mount was killed three days earlier by the forest drake. It burrowed frantically, tunneling underneath the party and emerging behind them just outside the lair. While it did not achieve total surprise, it did surprise some and beat the initiative of many others with a lucky roll. On the first round it charged the rear of the party, catching poor Dangle the rogue, mangling him into unconsciousness, and tossing his body aside. The casters went with prayer, call lightning and scorching ray, injuring, but not killing, the hodag. Deathstripe, the paladin and the dwarven fighter moved to engage, with Deathstripe absorbing an attack of opportunity while closing, and only the fighter hitting. The paladin and fighter locked in a shield wall, making them very hard to hit. The hodag went for Deathstripe, the easier target, and his AC just wasn't adequate against it's full attack. All attacks hit and poor Deathstripe was an orange and black pile of gore on the forest floor. The rest of the group beat the hodag down in another two rounds, but Deathstripe was long gone. And now I'm in the doghouse with my younger daughter for killing her tiger. Father of the Year, that's me.
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Name: Dmitri
Race: Human
Class: Cleric of Erastil 3
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Catalyst: Healing magic.
The Gory Details: The party finally located the lair of the bandits. They were able to convince the bandits that Kressel had recruited them and sent them on to the keep while she searched for a lost flask of liquor. The bandits became suspicious when, after a duel with Oak, one of the 'new recruits' healed Gilman, the party's fighter. Upon figuring out he was a cleric of Erastil, the bandits attacked. The majority of the party was in the south end of the keep, while the Enlarged cleric kept the Stag Lord and one of his henchmen at bay on the north end. A few devastating strikes from the Stag Lord later, and Dmitri lay dead in a pool of his own blood.
Name: General Samir Duran
Race: Half-Orc
Classes/levels: Barbarian 5/Ranger 1
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Hodag's Lair
Catalyst: The Hodag
The Gory Details: (optional) The cleric was stuck in the sorcerer's own web due to the hodag's toss ability. It rolled very well on its attacks, even had a crit, downing the unlucky barbarian. Moments later it was killed in retribution by King Richthofen's scorching ray (he critted... one round too late.)
Name: Molly Missy
Race: Soulbound Doll (advanced)
Classes/levels: Cohort Bard 11
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Candlemere island, homebrew dungeon
Catalyst:. The claws and fangs of the Horror Below
The Gory Details: (optional) Being within a 5' step of the Exemplar Amalgam 15 HD Chaos Beast/Gibbering Mouther, poor Molly Missy's body was shredded into cabbage, her soul focus temporarily lost amidst the twitching wriggling mass of her former shell. She got better though.
With me, it's always the same player who bites the dust. He has been a very good sport about it, and it's always a "good death", but it's becoming freakishly hilarious to see him always getting the crits (I roll open).
Paladin lvl 2 @ Stag Lord's Fort
Helm-ability (despite the smite Evil on him)
Summoner level 4 @ the grove.
I added a little effect that the tree quaked the ground coz he was getting annoyed of the fire arrows the party was shooting between his mates (I had it standing between 3 other, similar trees). Summoner was invisible (tremorsense) and was shouting out commands, and thereby forgetting to move *away* from the big tree.
Cleric level 5 @ troll lair.
Came in with light, saw two trolls charging him, and 1-2 rounds later (and receiving rend twice) he was kebab. The fighter/ruler now wears his armor (spiked black full-plate, Gorum-style) into combat.
Cavalier level 6 @ Owlbear lair.
Sadcakes about leaving the horse, he entered the first cave (when the rest waited), and found him to be surrounded by the Fungi. Six succesful attacks, and 2 failed Fort saves left him quite banged up, and when the Shambling Mound entered, he challenged it and wanted to get out, but was grabbed while passing it. One round later, the squeeshy parts emerged from between the vines...
...
...
Now he is making an evocation wizard ^^
After nearly three APs I've finally had two PC's die on me! I was way happier about this that I have any right to be, but sometimes killing a PC is fun. It's also a nice way to teach complacent players a lesson.
Name: Cathran Drakethistle
Race: Halfling (originally Human but reincarnated)
Classes/Levels Barbarian 4/Ranger 4
Name: Domson Heidnot
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Cleric of Iomedae 8
Adventure: The Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Vordakai's Isle
Catalyst: The inability to identify the weaknesses of the Piscodaemon combined with plain old bad luck and a healthy disregard for cause and effect.
The Gory Details: After an eventful night spent in, and then fleeing Vordakai's Isle, the party entered the tomb to do battle once more. After failing to disable the stygian fire trap in the previous room, the party took a not inconsiderable amount of damage. In the next room they encountered the Piscodaemon, which no one could identify, thus gaining no knowledge of its strengths or weaknesses. No one had a weapon which could break its damage reduction and the casters kept throwing spells it was immune or resistant to at it. Things took a turn for the worse as Cathran got grappled and the wizard, in a SERIOUS lapse of judgement, shot the monster holding his friend with a lightning bolt causing her to take full damage before she could wriggle free. Domson stepped up to fight the beast and save his friend, but fate was not on his side as the monster rolled a critical hit that turned him into a human pez dispenser. Cathran gave the order for a retreat while she held off the Piscodaemon by herself (she had gone somewhat suicidal after her reincarnation as a halfling) and lasted a total of one round. One can only hope that nothing unnatuaral happens to the corpse of heroes left in a lich's tomb...
Name: Gabriel Idaeus
Race: Human
Class: Paladin 5th lvl
Adventure: RRR
Location: Lost elven tower
Catalyst: Failed saving throws and not being able to break a grapple
Name: Clovis
Race: Bear
Class: Animal companion
Adventure: RRR
Location: Lost elven tower
Catalyst: Failed saving throws and the lack of cold iron claws/teeth
After being manhandled and sucked dry by a skinny elven dancing women Gabriels corpse was dragged off by his faithful horse Cryxus, unfortunatly Clovis was torn apart covering his druid masters escape. The party was last seen heading to Restov looking to purchase a raise dead spell.
Name: Spymaster Barek
Race: human
Classes/levels: rogue 6
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: R10. Hargulka’s Room
Catalyst: clubbed to death by the boss!
Name: Warden Vasili
Race: human
Classes/levels: fighter 5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: R10. Hargulka’s Room
Catalyst: clubbed to death by the boss!
Name: Thumbrag Goldhand (LN male dwarf fighter 5)
Race: dwarf
Classes/levels: fighter 5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: R10. Hargulka’s Room
Catalyst: clubbed to death by the boss!
The Gory Details: The party had no trouble fighting it's way through the troll lair. But they hesitated too long entering the throne room engaging Hargulka in melee. The boss softened them up with three good placed fireballs and clubbed them man by man to bloody meat for Kargadd's pantry.
The two spellcasting ladies fled the scene leaving their unconscious companions behind.
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Name: General Drakos
Race: 1/2 Orc
Class: Fighter 5th lvl
Adventure: RRR
Location: Crackjaw's Den
Catalyst: Going toe to toe with an angry snapping turtle.
Details: The two-handed sword wielding tank had several close calls over the campaign but after recently cake-walking the Barrow and Howl of the North Wind, the General of the Realm took a first round critical from the (Advanced Crackjaw - 6 player mod) for 70 damage.
The party are now trying to raise the funds to get their General back on his feet. The populace are being told it was a dragon, not an angry turtle.
(These are for a second group running through Kingmaker, not my usual crew.)
Name: Rothyn Shar
Race: Human
Class: Sorcerer 2nd
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: Kamelands
Catalyst: A combination of bravura and inexperience.
The Gory Details:
The Player Characters have just finished dealing with the Sootscale problem, having handed the statue to Chief Sootscale, and left the Sootscales to deal with their own internal politics. (Their suggestion when the kobold chief asked them to join in battle against the usurper Tartuk: "Uh, that sounds like internal kobold politics to me. I'm out.")
After a night's rest, they find that they've gained enough experience points to level. So they're now walking around the Kamelands, surveying and exploring, when a couple of days later, they crest a hill and notice a pair of trolls. Their sorceress (a GMPC) warns them it's a bad idea to attack - I believe I used the phrase "suicidal" - but the other two were eager to test out their 2nd level might. So they decide to charge.
The druids cougar animal companion wins initiative, and covers most of the distance to the trolls. Then the two trolls' turn arrives, and one charges the cougar, bringing it down in a single hit to a couple of hit points. The other troll runs over open terrain, covering most of the distance to the party.
At this point, the party decides it might not be the best idea to go forward, but they're already invested (and they have to get the damn cat out), so they charge the nearby troll, hoping to beat him to death. The druid starts tossing produce flame blasts at it, while the paladin Smites Evil on the troll and the sorceress steps in and starts burning hands.
They have a couple of decent rounds against the trolls (the cat animal companion runs back behind the party on its second turn - it had just got Mobility) but then the second troll finally catches up to the party, the cougar and paladin are knocked out just after they manage to beat the first troll unconscious (though not dead). Rothyn decides to attempt to distract the second troll - who is fully hale and whole - with another burning hands while the druid heals up the paladin and the two pick up the cougar and start running.
The troll of course shrugs off the burning hands, and full attacks Rothyn. Bite/Claw/Claw/Rake = from 14 or so hit points to -20s. I believe I described it as "She disappears into a fine, bloody mist as the troll rends her body limb from limb."
First time either of them had ever had a party member die.
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Name: General Drakos
Race: 1/2 Orc
Class: Fighter 5th lvl
Adventure: RRR
Location: Crackjaw's Den
Catalyst: Going toe to toe with an angry snapping turtle.Details: The two-handed sword wielding tank had several close calls over the campaign but after recently cake-walking the Barrow and Howl of the North Wind, the General of the Realm took a first round critical from the (Advanced Crackjaw - 6 player mod) for 70 damage.
The party are now trying to raise the funds to get their General back on his feet. The populace are being told it was a dragon, not an angry turtle.
Heh... Epic xD. That x3 crit on +18 is some nasty, nasty spike damage...
Name: King Alexander von Richthoven
Race: Human
Class: Sorcerer 6
Adventure: RRR
Location: Lair of the Beast
Catalyst: Charged by angry owlbear
Details: The sorcerer won intiative, moving forward and critting with a scorching ray. The angry owlbear was next, charging the young king. He critted, leaving the sorcerer at 1 hp. The healing he received before he could get away was not enough to save him in the end. He was later reincarnated as a half-elf.
Name: Kazmuk
Race: Dwarf
Class: Cleric 6
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Midden of the Owlbear's lair
Catalyst: Hugged by a nasty Shambling Mound
Details: I have a six person party, so I had made some advancements to some of the creatures. When the party threw a light source into the cave, it landed near the entrance and disturbed a shrieker. The party moved forward and dispatched the violet fungi and the shriekers, but unbeknownst to them, they had alerted both the shambling mound and owlbear to their presence. The shambling mound got there first and grabbed Kazmuk. The rest of the party, scared of the owlbear focused their attacks on it. Kazmuk lasted two rounds before being constricted to death by the shambling mound.
So far, my two deaths have been to an assassin vine and a shambling mound. My bet is on the venus fly trap in Varnhold Vanishing.
Name: Naadhira (+1 unnamed)
Race: Human (+1 embryo)
Class: Cleric 12 of Sarenrae (+1 future NPC in her belly)
Adventure: Blood for Blood/War of the River Kings (transition downtime)
Location: A farm in the outskirts of Drelev
Catalyst: Random encounter with two black dragons
Details: The party was out exploring the remaining hexes of the Blood for Blood map, and had an encounter. Rolling a 99, I looked up the table and smiled devilishly. 1d4 Adult Black Dragons.
They come across a farm, where the black dragons in question is having a jolly old time feasting on the bubbling remains of acid-bathed commoners and making the remaining farm hand and animals cower in terror. They spot the wind-walking party and cloaks themselves in darkness, recognizing them as powerful adventurers (Spellcraft to identify a lv6 spell, and Wis17 to process this information).
The party comes down to save the day, but manages to get caught in acid crossfire. The fighter shrieks in terror as he rolls a 1 on his will save vs Frightful Presence, and the cleric and wizard has to double-team to keep him around and restore his senses. Ensue some hand to hand, where one of the dragons go for a golden chance to deliver an Improved Vital Strike to the cleric for over 40 damage. Instead of healing herself, she opts to use her Nimbus of Light to dispel the darkness on the dragons, making them easier to see for the combatants. She has over 30 hp, and nothing can get to her easily.
The fighter, paladin and cavalier gets their mojo on, and hurts one severely. Things are looking better. The other dragon sees that there is a whole lot of flanking going on, and breathes through the cleric, the other dragon, who is immune to acid, and the paladin, and I manage to roll SIXTY on 12d6. Cleric fails the reflex save and is reduced to a puddle of acidic goop.
Poor cleric. :(
Poor cleric. :(
Nah, she is OK again, cudos to the local magistrate/councilor who is able to cast resurrection (long story of why there is a more powerful NPC than the highest level PC working with them, is all build-up to post-kingmaker and stuff).
People don't all seem to believe her though.
"Dragon turned me into acidic goop!"
"ACIDIC GOOP?"
"...I got better..."
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Name: Jal
Race: Human (Varisiain)
Class/Level: Ranger 4
Adventure Rivers Run Red, Kinda (Fusion campaign with RotR)
Location The Lonely Barrow (located south of Magnimar)
Catalyst: Energy drain by the Lonely Warrior
Name: Amonon, blessed of Sarenrae
Race: Elf
Class/Level: Cleric 4
Adventure Rivers Run Red, Kinda (Fusion campaign with RotR)
Location The Lonely Barrow (located south of Magnimar)
Catalyst: Energy drain by the Lonely Warrior and the undead Jal-wight
Details: I am running a Rise of the Runelords/Kingmaker fusion campaign. The PCs are in a Kingmaker-heavy portion where they are mapping and exploring the lands south of the Yondabakari River and ended up going almost straight to where I had placed the Lonely Barrow. The group (7PCs) blew through the skeletons and other traps and were cocky when the Lonely Warrior lurched forward, wading in without any real plan or cogent tactics.
Jal ran in (like he always did, low AC be damned) and got quickly spanked. He was drained, knocked out, drained, healed up, drained and eventually killed and respawned as a mini-me cairn wight. The Lonely Warrior wasn't so lonely any more and the two of them swarmed Amonon before the Lonely warrior finally fell to magic missiles and arrows. Wight-Jal drain-killed Amonon and then died and Wight-Amonon went down the easiest because he was the weakest warrior before adding the spawn-version of the cairn wight template.
It was a fight characterized by bad tactics and bad PC-dice to start and claimed a couple of relatively weak characters. The rest of the team buried their dead and split the loot in the old-school style and are returning to town to rearm and reinforce their numbers.
Name: CHEQ
Race: Human
Class/Level: Bard 9
Adventure VV/BFB crossover
Location In the Wilderness
Catalyst: Nigh-time enounter by two Witchfire, from Bestiary 2
Session 28, and first PC death!
one witchfire hits him for 8d6 fire damage and makes him fire vulnerable.
next round he is hit for another 8d6+50% fire damage and he hits -20hp
In his good hope/rapid shot/many shot/haste frenzy he did do about 150hp damage back, so he dies in glory
raise dead /restored at great expense
One more for the obits
Name: Lenard
Race: Human
Class/Level: Paladin 6 (of Erastil)
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Hargulka's Lair
Catalyst: Deciding to sleep in the partially cleared troll lair
The party attacked Hargulka's Lair with energy and effectiveness, if little finesse, using brute force and fire spells to great effect in blasting their way into the lair and through the first few rooms, but taking a lot of damage in return. Low on HPs, healing and fire magic, they decided to rest. They thought they had cleared the bulk of the troll forces, and decided to just make camp in the entry way. About halfway through the night, Hargulka started wandering, discovered lots of burned troll and troll hound carcasses and called up the rock troll and the two headed troll (the only other survivors) and assaulted their camp. The party was able to keep the battle in a hallway, so only one of the trolls could come at them at a time, but took heavy damage from Hargulka's "grenades", and the front line fighters were slowly whittled down. With the rock troll and 2-headed troll down, and the entire party low on hit points and spellpower, Lenard bravely charged Hargulka, hoping to smite him into oblivion, or at least buy some time for his party to regroup. Unfortunately, Lenard did not put the troll leader down, and the next round ate a full attack, sending him into the great beyond. His sacrifice, however, enabled the rest of the party to down some healing potions, and they polished off Hargulka with a vengeful storm of arrows, magic missiles, a flaming sphere, dwarven axe strikes and wolf bites. Lenard was then put under a gentle repose spell and rushed to Restov to be raised in the Temple of Erastil there (although not without a bit of grumbling about the expense from the fiscally conservative Baroness).
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Name: Harnok Lighthook
Race: Gnome
Classes/levels: Paladin 8
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Vordakai's Tomb
Catalyst: Piscodaemon
The Gory Details:
The party was fleeing the Tomb after being ravaged with negative levels by a specter and with lots of ability damage from soul eaters.
We had managed to bluff our way past the Piscodaemon previously by claiming to be servants of Vordakai (don't ask me how we managed to bluff past him, the DM allowed it and I wasn't asking questions).
We wanted to rescue the centaur prisoner on our way out, and had just hit 8th level and gained access to dimension door. So, we bluffed our way past him again, and the witch took the centaur out with her.
Then came the, "Where is the other who was with you?" question, to which we responded, "Still with the prisoner." Completely true, for the record. =)
So, claws and tentacles went to check this claim while we calmly filed down the stairs to try and make our way through the now flooded and double-portcullis sealed trap room downstairs.
When we heard him coming back, we were down to three party members, had already used a bunch of our spells for the day, had negative levels and ability damage, and just wanted to get out alive. Getting out alive was not looking like an option (we rocked our knowledge check on the daemon).
Harnok planted his tower shield on the stairs, cast protection from evil, and told the rest of the party to run as fast as they could.
With judicious use of protection from evil (Piscodaemon is all natural attacks, he couldn't touch me with that active), five foot steps, and liberal use of "You shall not pass!", I managed to hold him for about fifteen rounds while the rest of the party knocked down some portcullises and ran/swam for it.
Gnome Paladin + Self Sacrifice + Party Escapes w/ lives = Mega Win!+1 - Excellent paladining!
It was a really satisfying character death. I was quite pleased and felt really fulfilled by it.
A near-death, at least, we'll see how the campaign progresses >_>
Name: Gern Blacktusk
Race: Half-Orc
Classes/levels: Ranger 2 (Urban Ranger variant)
Adventure: Stolen Land
Location: Trapped-Filled Glade
Catalyst: Rusty Bear Trap
The Gory Details:
Our Witch 2/Human (Taldan) (Mother looking for a new home for herself and her two daughters, fleeing an abusive stalker), Cavalier 2/Human (Taldan) (Would-be King and I think he's also a bastard son of some noble) and Wizard2/Halfling (Hates slavery and is looking for locations where anti-slavers groups can stash their ex-slaves) are quite eager to go charging off, while the Cleric 2/Human (Garundi) and ironicly enough, our Bard 3/Kobold are the ones calling for calm and reasoned action. My Ranger is basically ignoring this and just handling ranged duties at this point in time, as well as ensuring the party doesn't wander off the beaten track or into bogs, which makes what happened next all the more humiliating.
Isolde Salven, our Witch, almost stumbled into the trap, and my Ranger spotted it at the very last moment, leaping forwards to push her out of the way ... and falling directly onto the trap. Two jaws swung up and snapped closed around his torso, and it took a lot of jostling from the party to get him loose, which nearly dropped him into negative hit-points before the party managed to smash the trap's spring and pull him out.
Breeg is now a dead man walking, soon to be just a dead man once Gern tracks him down.
Our first death in quite a while
Name: Shenis
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Evoker 14
Adventure: Voice of a Thousand Screams
Location: Mandragora Swarm Bloom
Catalyst: Too many failed saves.
The Gory Details: We've always struggled with swarms and this one was no exception. After rocking a CR 20 random encounter on the way to the bloom, we over-confidently landed in the middle of it trying to identify the source of the sound of crying children.
We were immediately swarmed and the party's healer (witch), nuker and tank all had to make a sky high fort save and will save. The fighter made his fort save but was left confused while both the witch and evoker failed both saves (the witch even using a re-roll). The witch got lucky and managed to act normally while confused and flew out of the swarm but the evoker was not so lucky and babbled incoherently. Two failed poison saves later and she was unconscious. Too compound matters, the party's sorceror dropped a deeper darkness on the swarm only to realize that no one had a way of seeing inside the darkness spell. So our whole party was left flying around over the darkness cloud wondering what was happening to our Evoker trapped inside.
With the Evoker's condition/whereabouts unknown we just had to wait out the darkness spell rather then just area nuke everything which is what we should have done to start (and what our DM expected us to do).
The side twist is that the swarm was still doing damage to poor Shenis and set off her Contigency spell when she dropped below 20hp ,dimension Dooring her 900' or so to the north. We eventually found her body via Scrying but by the time we arrived the DM ruled that she had been killed.
In two 2 weeks (next session) we will return and nuke the whole thing from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Priceless Vaellen, just priceless. :)
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Name: Fijitor
Race: Hobgoblin (after numerous reincarnates; originally a gnome)
Classes/levels: Druid 12
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: Derghodaemon corridor in the tombs
Catalyst: Too many swarms and party disarray due to the misty rooms with guards and wards
The Gory Details: The druid was happy that he had poison immunity, what with insect plague and creeping doom raining down. He was the first who got damaged after earth gliding through a wall and ending up in a corridor that was already full of swarms (as their loud explorations had riled up the derghodaemon behind the door). He also got feebleminded immediately by the aura (and in the module you get a new save only every HOUR, not every MINUTE as in the Bestiary 2 version of the derghodaemon), so although he came back through the wall he couldn't communicate with the party, though they could tell there was danger.
The party found the illusion-hidden door into the corridor and opened it, and of course creeping doom swarms rushed out and started chewing up the party. Another character got hit with fear and fled one way, followed by another character; the others went the other way. A remove fear scroll concentration check failed due to the swarm concentration DC. One cohort and animal companion were basically unable to damage the swarms, and a few people got distracted and messed up. A cloudkill down the corridor wiped out the immobile insect plague but didn't harm the daemon, which started cranking out bat swarms (that were surprisingly effective, including their bleed damage).
Some PCs ended up diving into the corridor to find the monster throwing out these spells and swarms (including burning out the G&W webs with a fire spell, slightly damaging the daemon) while the druid turned into an air elemental whirlwind to get rid of the bat swarms and obscuring mist. The daemon's melee attacks are quite savage (esp. rend and Con damage on two claw hits), however, and the PCs were having a heck of a time hacking through its DR/good. A successful glitterdust did temporarily blind the daemon, but lucky rolls on miss chances allowed it to gut the druid. Spending action points kept the druid on his feet temporarily, but even with a breath of life spell the druid still ended up too negative when his action points ran out.
After a well-timed crit with critical card (allowing an extra attack), the daemon was finally dropped and the party dim-doored/teleported the heck outta there to rest and recuperate.
Reincarnation brought Fijitor back, this time as an elf... :)
Name: Fijitor
Race: Hobgoblin (after numerous reincarnates; originally a gnome)
Classes/levels: Druid 12
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: Derghodaemon corridor in the tombs
Catalyst: Too many swarms and party disarray due to the misty rooms with guards and wards...
Heh. Excellent. :->
You know that derghodaemon was originally supposed to be a pair of Large fire elementals blocking off either end of the corridor, burning their way through the webs and mist filling the hall. But I like how the derghodaemon's swarms worked out just as well.
Name: Andrejev
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Rogue 2
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: Boggard's den
Catalyst: failure to establish communication, over-interested players
The Gory Details: The group is on an all encompassing trip through the Stolen Lands, one hex away from the fangberry patch, which they intended to harvest and rush straight back to Bokken.
They stumble into the small swamp where Garuum's abode lies. Failing to establish communication (the cleric does not have comprehend languages memorized and nobody speaks Boggard) and moving closer to the ruins in search of loot and signs for demon worship (the paladin and cleric rolled really high on their Knowledge (local) and Knowledge (religion) checks), Garuum sees his territory invaded and moves in to attack.
Some rounds later, Andrejev is huddling in a corner on the outside of the bigger building, having 1hp left and being opposed by Ubagub. He tries to tumble over the remains of the wall to escape the next attack by the slurk and botches his roll - AoO resulting in a crit, dealing 4d6+4 damage - 26hp damage! Dead elf.
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Name: Warden Grand Inquisitor Rhonin
Race: Human
Class: Inquisitor of Erastil 5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Dancing Lady's Lair.
Catalyst: One bad save.
The Gory Details:
After a long harrowing fight with Rigg Gargadilly, Rhonin was angry and out for evil fey blood, unfortunately a fey managed to get his blood first.
The party rogue Grand Diplomat Rosalina successfully disabled the Insanity Mist Gas trap and lead the way up the stairs. There the Dancing Lady spotted her and proceeded to dance. Rosalina succeeded, but Rhonin who was following close behind failed. The lady cast suggestion on Rosalina suggesting: "Why not explore the rest of my home, while I dance with your friend."
Rosalina goes downstairs explaining she has to explore. One character tries to hold her down while two others head upstairs. Rhonin is grappled and constantly taking CON and STR damage, with his badly injured hit points from hi previous fight against Rigg and his severely lowered CON Rhonin the Inquisitor died in three rounds.
He was avenged by the Baron Doc, and Councillor Zool. The party took their ally's corpse and some smaller trinkets and rode for their lives back to the city of Calvin's Rest. They discovered a "Do Not Resurrect" order in the Warden's Last Will and testament.
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Name: Avelli
Race: Elf
Class: Ranger 5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Kargadd's Larder
Catalyst: Clever dungeon design, overconfidence, and being there a level too early.
The Gory Details: Sometimes I don't entirely understand the published monster tactics. When I don't, I ignore them. So:
...I ignore those instructions. The party reached the intersection, and both trolls attacked. The party rolled high in initiative, and moved to block both chambers. The party has 5 members, so I'm applying simple advanced to everything. Unfortunately, Avelli's player rolled really high in initiative, and charged Kargadd. She and her animal companion Nixie wounded Kargadd pretty severely, but she was taking some big damage herself (the fighters were engaging Hargulka). The party's witch had successfully Misfortuned Kargadd, but I was rolling well and he was still hitting. At round three, Kargadd hit with both claws and a bite, and Avelli was stone-cold dead even before the Rend. A tough end.
Name: Warden Grand Inquisitor Rhonin
Race: Human
Class: Inquisitor of Erastil 5
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location: Dancing Lady's Lair.
Catalyst: One bad save.The Gory Details:
Ah, the Stripper from Hell, as my group promptly named her, claims another! They didn't lose anyone to her, but she messed with them pretty seriously, and they hated her something fierce. Fortunately the female ranger (Warden Noname) and female sorceress (Baroness Jaslene) kept her head and shot/flamed her down eventually.
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Several bodies to add to the butcher's bill, and one of them even stayed dead.
Name: Mayor Brunner (technically died 3 times in this fight)
Race: Race
Class: Oracle 10
Name: Headsman Hestia
Race: Human
Class: Barbarian 10
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: Armag's Tomb
Catalyst: The Black Sisters + A Madman
The Gory Details: This group of 10th level characters has plowed through each and every encounter so far with ease and aplomb. With the exception of a few custom-designed Graul Clan Ogrekin encounters, nothing has really proved a challenge at all. Entering the "high level spectrum," it was time to ramp up the difficulty a bit.
After murdering their way through the Tiger Lord Barbarians outside and capturing/charming their planar-bound leadership (A bound Lilend and ally Rakshasa - courtesy of the black clad weirdo girls in the first room), the group moved into the dungeon proper.
In the very first room, Magister Enrol's new Tiger Lord Zombies led the way, before Mayor Brunner moved into the center of the room. Seeing an obvious adherent of Erastil and likely healer, the sisters sprung their trap.
A wall of iron sealed Brunner off from the rest of the party before Sister 2 laid down a blade barrier running the width of the room, directly behind the walled off entrance. They then moved to engage the sad oracle in melee, using Quickened Touch of Rest. One landed, leaving Brunner staggered.
The party moved into the room in short order, either through teleportation magic or sinking the 6" thick wall of iron in a new muddy pit courtesy of Artemis the druid. From there, things went from bad to worse in short order.
Another blader barrier effectively split the room into thirds, with the Cavalier, Druid, and Sorcerer outside the "box of doom" and Brunner, Hestia, and Enrol the Wizard inside. Bunches of spells sailed back and forth, from cloudkill to create pit spells. Towards the midpoint of this 14 round slugfest, the chamber looked more like a circuit board diagram than a battlemap room.
Brunner fell victim to a pair of Touch of Rest and a coup de grace from a heavy pick. He managed to stave off death with 2 of his action points, remaining at -1 hp and stable. Unable to neutralize the sisters, number 1 took a swing to finish him off, only to be rebuffed again with Brunner's last remaining hero points. Artemis, braving the blender wall, moved in and began healing everyone she could.
Hestia, meanwhile, had her hands full trading full attacks with Sister 1, dealing bunches of damage but receiving almost as much in return. About this point, I lost track of the exact route of the fight.
Brunner withdrew a bit, allowing for the Sisters to double team Hestia and tried to channel everyone up. Artemis kept flitting around as a little bat, throwing healing wherever she could. Hestia then dropped to the Sisters last quickened Touch of Rest (one had to use a standard action to set up the kill) and coup de grace. She managed to survive by dint of hero points.
Brunner, meanwhile, called for a tactical retreat, and tried to flee through the blender wall. Still carrying shield other, the damage Hestia had taken, plus the failed save against blade barrier proved enough to drop him unconscious. A failed save against channel energy from the Sisters finished off the Oracle, ironically dropping his corpse and carpet of flying down a 30' deep pit (courtesy of a create pit earlier.
Weakened and desperate, Enrol, along with Queen Rilani, gambled with their lives. The Magister dimension door'd his Cavalier monarch next to Sister 1, whereupon she unleashed a mighty full attack on the evil Cleric. Sister 1 fell under Rilani's blade, which more or less signaled the endgame.
Sister 2 fell shortly thereafter, from combined fire by the whole party, but fight remained in the fanatics, after all. Following death, their bodies began to reform in a swirl of dust and cloth. Not wanting to deal with undead clerics, Ganon the Sorcerer gust of wind'd their remains down their own pit spells. Enrol and Artemis used their remaining stone/creation spells to put thick lids across the top of the pits.
The resultant fight against Mummy Sisters went a LOT easier for the party. Lacking most of their defensive spells (most notably spell resistance, spell immunity, and the various stat-buff spells) and possessing a newfound vulnerability to fire, fireball, scorching ray and good old swords put paid to their evil ways.
Brunner's last will and testament included a clause advising against resurrection, so a new Mayor will come forth sooner or later.
Sounds like an awesome fight!
much thanks to Turin for statblock & tactical help - this was the most difficult fight of the campaign so far
Do you - or Turin - mind sharing the details?
Ruyan.
not at all...will be a little bit before I get the journal entry completed, but that will include the GoogleDocs links for the critters I used.
Actually, all of the Black Sisters' buffs and defenses should have stayed up and running except for the blade barriers and any other spells with (D) appended to the duration.
Great read. So many messy deaths gladden my blackened, shriveled GM's heart so. O:)
P.S.: shouldn't the dim-door have removed all capability to take action for both the caster and the cavalier? Just sayin' :)