Carrion Crown Obituaries

[MurphysParadox]

Name: Names are a formality forgotten after the 2nd hour of play
Race: Elf
Classes/Levels: Wizard/10
Adventure: Wake of the Watcher
Location: Ogg'gggol's room
Catalyst: Invisible 16 foot tall Gug
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

The party decided to start off swinging against the brain fungus Ogg'gggol. Ogg decided that this wasn't cool, so he told the Gug to go invisible and take care of the wizard who summoned the great big earth elemental.

The fight started with a nauseated inquisitor, followed by a dazed wild-shaped druid (both for four rounds). So it fell to the wizard, monk, and earth elemental to win. While the monk was beating the fungus to a fiery death, the Gug snuck up to the wizard.

The wizard got wind of something so he cast See Invisibility in time to see a 16 foot tall four armed giant mouthed monster standing right next to him. He ran off to hide behind his elemental, so the Gug caused the roof to collapse with some rock-to-mud. The monk and inquisitor moved in but couldn't take it down before it struck.

The gug reached past the monk and the elemental to deliver his bite and four claw attacks on the wizard. Unfortunately, two of the claws were crits. The wizard was reduced to a pile of body parts with quite a large number of negative hit points (1d8+7d6+59 damage would do that to a wizard).

After the fight, the druid reincarnated the wizard as a Half-Elf and they kept going deeper into the caves. This was the first death for my party, though I suspect the final boss will take down a few folks as well.

[Galnörag]

Name: Shiphra Vanethar and Johanne Krauss
Race: Changling and Half-elf
Classes/Levels: Blackblooded Ancestor Mystery Oracle 11 and Oracle of Life/Dirge Bard (Can't recall the level mix at the moment)
Adventure: Ashes at Dawn
Location: Tying up Loose Ends
Catalyst: Fireball, fireball, fireball, fireball, several rounds later, fireball, fireball
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

The party well tapped from entering the Vampire Underground found themselves under attack on the way back out. Their invisible, mage armoured, expeditious retreat buffed vampire foes opened fire in the surprise round with fireballs, and then opened fire with the first initiative with one more fireball each. This left poor, black blooded (read awful ref save) a burnt cinder.

Several rounds later the party once again found itself bunched in close, and was thus subject to two more fireballs which finished Johanne off. The party doesn't have deep in combat healing resources, and were kept occupied acquiring a target on the vampires that the secondary healers couldn't help out.

My wife, Shiphra, benevolent in character death, is not making me sleep on the sofa ;)

[Keep Calm and Carrion]

Name: Bellosh the Szcarni
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Rogue 2
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Ouibliette
Catalyst: Trying to go toe-to-toe with Gurtis Vortch
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Though only four of their six-person party were available, my players gamely ventured into the depths of Harrowstone in search of the remaining three notorious prisoners. They easily dispatched the flaming skulls guarding the pit, offhandedly slaughtered the ectoplasmic humans in the pool, and after more of a scuffle, destroyed the burning skeletons at the base of the blocked stairs.

This gave them something of a sense of false confidence.

Detect Undead revealed just one tough undead to the north of them, so they swaggered up to the door to Gurtis Vortch’s guard room, only to have it fly open in their faces. Bellosh, believing the axe-wielding undead to be the Lopper, struck at him repeatedly with the Lopper’s axe, doing very little damage and crisping in the skeleton’s firey aura for several rounds. When the headless warrior finally landed a blow, he dropped him from three to negative eleven HP, splitting the hapless rogue’s head in two. The remaining party members survived Vortch by the skin of their teeth, and dragged their companion out of the ruined prison to be laid at the Restlands.

[tonyz]

Entire party TPK
Schloss Carmarac
Cause of death: flying to the top of the highest tower and opening the big iron doors. The Promethean beat our biggest damage dealer on initiative, grapped him, and paralyzed him. The rest of te party followed shortly. The female barbarian lasted longest in the tentacles, leading to a few hentai jokes.

We'll be doing Skull and Shackles next.

[mirtexxan]

Name: Roman Price
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 9
Adventure: Wake of the Watcher
Location: Upper floor of Undiomede House
Catalyst: concrete floor, a snatching Shantak and an unlucky paladin
The Gory Details: (optional)

Spoiler:

The party was fighting the two hounds of tindalos, when the sorcerer decided to retreat to a more secure location after being severly injured by multiple gaze attacks. Suddenly, an angry shantak showed up grabbing the poor Roman up in the sky. He tried to cast fly on himself to no avail. The shantak flew even higher in the sky and then dropped him making him crashing into the room where the party was still figthing the hounds. Gory istant death WOULD have ensued. However the party paladin (who moved exactly under the flying shantak and readied an action) decided to play his harrow card (given to him by Madame Ivanja). I gave him a reflex save to use his lay on hands ability on the falling sorcerer. The paladin faliled a DC15 save, rolling a 14. Gory instant death DID ensued. :)

[mirtexxan]

tonyz wrote:

Entire party TPK

[...]
We'll be doing Skull and Shackles next.

It's a shame to stop playing Carrion Crown. For me and for my group is the greatest campaign we ever played... (and we still haven't played Module 5 and 6!)

[mirtexxan]

Name: Irina Myskin
Race: Human
Classes/Levels Bard 10
Adventure: Wake of the Watcher
Location Under the lake
Catalyst Three sharks, poor swim checks, and a devilfish sorcerer lightning bolt
The Gory Details: (optional)

Spoiler:

Poor Irina was completly blind and useless due to the cloud of darkness conjured by Dhauggota around the sub. She decided to left the relative safety of the submarine to try to contribute to a suprisingly hard fight, but she started failing easy swim checks. She was hit by a couple of lightning bolts (no save, as she was still blind), but at the end se managed to escape the black ink cloud. Unfortunately, this also meant she left the safe magic circle created by the party oracle. Of course, three frustrated summoned fiendish sharks were waiting with readied actions just outside the black cloud/magic circle area. After a couple of good hits (one crit) she went unconscious and started falling down to the bottom of the lake, outside the oracle of life channel range. The oracle tried to reach her in time, but Dhauggota finished her with his final lightning bolt (which also hit the nicely lined-up paladin and oracle), before being himself smited to nothingness by a really angry paladin.

[Zhangar]

? Mirtexxan, you still get reflex saves when flat-footed. Hell, you still get them even while unconscious, just at a huge penalty.

[mirtexxan]

Name: Roman Price (again)
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Sorcerer 10
Adventure: Wake of the Watcher
Location: Under the tern rocks
Catalyst: Excessive fondness for teleport and a 16-foot rending monstruosity, a.k.a. Gug Savant
The Gory Details: (optional)

Spoiler:

During an intense fight against a horde of Mi-Go the party was very smart and able to befriend the Cerebric Fungus Oracle, voluntarily opening their mind (and failing their saves) to the brain-draining mind-reading plant. The party oracle played his own harrow card and gave to the fungus the memory of his faith in Pharasma, so they even got him to be a temporary ally, as in my game he wanted only to return back to his home.
Unfortunately Roman was isolated from the rest of the party by a couple of Mi-Go, so he tried AGAIN to retreat in a safe area, using his trusted teleport spell. Unfortunately, he decided to teleport near the tunnell to the Gug Savant cave, where an invisibility monstruosity was waiting to join the fray. The Gug rolled an amazing natural 1 with his charge attack, keeping the sorcerer alive for the moment. However, a Mi-Go completely blocked the escape path, exploiting flanking with the Gug. Then the following happened:
1) The party tried to clear an escape route to no avail.
2) Roman failed to cast defensively his beloved teleport
3) Claw, claw, claw, claw, rend, rend.
4) -40 Hp :)

[mirtexxan]

Zhangar wrote:

? Mirtexxan, you still get reflex saves when flat-footed. Hell, you still get them even while unconscious, just at a huge penalty.

Yeah, I just checked. You are right according to RAW. I just assumed that the blind condition prevents a character from making Reflex saves. The players accepted the ruling as it seemed reasonable. She rolled anyway "just to check" and she would have failed anyway, so no big deal.

I hope you're enjoying my combat reports, by the way! :)

[Zhangar]

Yeah, you have some hilariously unlucky players. You're posting as they happen in game? That's great.

[IronicBlade]

Name:Vladimir
Race: Dwarf
Classes/Levels: Inquisitor 1
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: Western Cellblocks
Catalyst: Entering the prison through the "wrong" door, bad positioning and really, really hostile dice.
The Gory Details: The party decided to force open the door on the Western balcony, bypassing all of the easy encounters near the entrance to the prison and engaging the Piper at level 1. Vladimir was right up against a cell door when the skeletons burst out. He was (randomly!) chosen to be the target of the Piper's Hold Person effect. The skeleton adjacent to Vladimir then proceeded to coup de grace the hapless (and helpless) dwarf. Vladimir failed his save and died (he got better - the player was absent this session and our group has decided that PC's who are played by proxy can be properly killed by nothing save extraordinary circumstance).

That encounter was very nearly a TPK. Encountering the Piper before having any chance to deal with the stirges hanging around made this fight extremely lethal.

Name:Boris
Race: Halfling
Classes/Levels: Divine Hunter 2
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Infirmary, The Furnace Room
Catalyst: Fleeing into the furnace room after being damaged by the poltergeist.
The Gory Details: The party decided to employ the "always go left" strategy in Harrowstone. This resulted in them encountering the poltergeist before they had dealt with with the furnace haunt. After the initial volley of telekinesis from the poltergeist, the ghost opted to throw the halfling into the table next to the door to the furnace. This placed the poltergeist between the halfling and southern exit to the infirmary. Boris opted to flee through the furnace room, reasoning that any place was better than the room with the poltergeist. An above average damage roll on the furnace's scorching ray proved him wrong, dropping the halfling deeply into the negatives. With the rest of the party fleeing from the infirmary and the furnace preparing for a killing blow, Boris spent his two hero points. Miraculously, the poltergeist's next assault flung the halfling through a hole in an outside wall, skipped him across the water and resulted in Boris coming to rest, unconscious but stable, on the far side of the lake.

Runner up: The party's THF paladin also opted to flee through the furnace room, managing to avoid a lethal hit from the furnace and plunging into the lake... Triggering the skeletons at the bottom of the lake to come after him. The skeletons beat him to a bloody -6 on the lakeshore before walking back into the lake to chase after the fresher prey of the other two members of the party wading to the halfling's aid. The party managed to skirt around the lake, rescue the halfing and paladin and escape from the prison grounds before the skeletons reemerged.

[The_E]

Name: Stephanie Krüger
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Zen Archer Monk 9
Adventure: Wake of the Watcher
Location: Temple of the Order
Catalyst: Guardian Chuul

The Gory Details: After finally coming to the conclusion that we really should talk to the Cult about what's going wrong, we scouted them out. Through magical surveillance, we were able to determine that the Order actually prayed to Dagon, a shocking fact which we then brought to the Priest's attention the next day. Surprisingly, we were immediately attacked. After a few rounds of whack-a-cultist, one of them managed to ring the bell and summon the guardian. As I was the only thing standing between the Chuul and our Cleric, I got grabbed pretty immediately. After failing to escape from his grasp, the thing squeezed, and bisected me rather neatly.

[Tybid]

Name: Dogan Moon
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Barbarian 4
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Vorkstag and Grine's Chymickal Works
Catalyst: Grine and a Snapjaw Homunculus

Gory Details:

Dogan, a Kellid with a tendency to go nude and an obscenely low charisma, had a bad habit of trying to roll into rooms and start slashing at anything that moved.

After a confrontation with Vorkstag and Grine that almost left all of them dead they decide to go back into the factory to hunt down the two murderers and put them to justice. The group investigates the tower where Grine is holed up with his homunculi defending him.

After killing two of them and reaching the upper level of the tower Dogan climbs the ladder and immediately rolls into the room. He fails his perception check to see the homunculus and Grine hiding in the room.

The homunculus hits him, he fails his fortitude save and falls asleep.

Grine, once initiative begins, goes first and immediately beheads the sleeping barbarian with his axe. To make matters worse the murderous creeper tosses Dogan's head down the ladder to taunt the rest of the group.

After the group finally subdued him they received the ultimate jab when Grine informed them that he, 'knew everything,' and to get the whole story they would need to have him alive for trial. The group did the 'right' thing and let him live to stand trial.

Once they realized that bringing Dogan back would cost them nearly 6,000 gp they began preparations for a funeral.

[Blackbot]

Tybid wrote:

Once they realized that bringing Dogan back would cost them nearly 6,000 gp they began preparations for a funeral.

"Sir, our valued friend died. What are our options?"

"Well, there are the options of a ground burial, fire burial or the resurrection."
"Resurrection? That sounds awesome!"
"It will cost 6000 gp."
"...are your coffins oak or pine?"

[General Spoon]

Name: Seldlon
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Urban Barbarian 1/Rogue 2
Adventure: The Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Oubliette
Catalyst: The Lopper

Name: Marina
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Cleric 2/Sorcerer 1
Adventure: The Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Oubliette
Catalyst: The Lopper

The Gory Details: After the party's dhampir archery paladin quickly dispatched the Burning Skeletal Champion Fighter 3, the party healed the damage they took before she could destroy it. Healed up, they decided to investigate the deranged laughter from the pit to the north, and were met by the Lopper climbing up the rope and through the grate.

The party's witch ran back around a corner almost immediately, and the Lopper spent a few rounds chopping at the other three party members. First taking a swipe at the dhampir, he quickly realized he wouldn't do much to her, and changed tactics to ignore her (easy enough to do, as she wasn't able to hit him with a single arrow during the fight). After a few rounds of causing people to bleed, Marina is doing a decent enough job of stopping the bleeding.

So the Lopper decides to chase after that nice not-bleeding witch that fled him, and is immediately struck by her burning hands when he turns the corner, staggering him. The rest of the party gives chase, and not happy, the Lopper drops Seldlon into negatives. He is brought conscious again by Marina, but is dropped again by the Lopper, and bleeds to death on his turn.

Exhilarated, the Lopper chases the witch who has fled him again, and is struck by another Burning Hands from a readied action. The Lopper is unhappy to be staggered again, and stumbled over to the witch, who slaps him with a third burning hands on her next turn. At this point really fearful of her, he runs back and begins to chop at Marina. The witch flees while he eventually drops Marina to negatives, and she bleeds to death a few rounds later.

What followed was the dhampir paladin grabbing Marina's wand of CLW, and beginning to try and poke the Lopper with it in a long stalemate, that was broken maybe two dozen rounds later when the Lopper started to roll good bleed damage and low negative energy damage, forcing the dhampir paladin to also flee Harrowstone.

It is likely the witch will prepare nothing but fire spells the next day.

[Turin the Mad]

Kill it with fire. Then sift the ashes for loot. ;-)

[Andrea1]

Blackbot wrote:

Tybid wrote:

Once they realized that bringing Dogan back would cost them nearly 6,000 gp they began preparations for a funeral.

"Sir, our valued friend died. What are our options?"

"Well, there are the options of a ground burial, fire burial or the resurrection."
"Resurrection? That sounds awesome!"
"It will cost 6000 gp."
"...are your coffins oak or pine?"

Hopefully they did the right thing after the trial and slit his throat.

[Ben the Red]

Name: Sanus
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Fighter/6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Schloss Caromarc
Catalyst: Erinyes Trap
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

After a previous experience involving a bridge, an air elemental, and a waterfall, the party wanted to cross the rope bridge one at a time. Sanus volunteered to go first, tied a rope around himself and ventured across. Unfortunately, he failed his perception check to see the trap and summoned the fallen angel.
The Erinyes promptly shot Sanus with several flaming arrows, almost knocking him off the bridge. Then a nasty Unholy Blight as he rejoined the group. As he was already weakened from the Wyvern Arrow Trap, that was enough for him to die before the Cleric could heal him.
It could have been a TPK, as the Cleric was feared back into the Manse and the Swordsage and Sorcerer both went down (refusing to retreat) just before the spell ran out.

[Tormad]

Name: Brother Phiroz of Caliphas
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cleric 1
Adventure: Haunting of harrowstone
Location: West Balcony of the prison
Catalyst: That damn floating scythe
The Gory Details:

Details:

The party engaged the headsman's with great confidence, they had just got done dealing with the terrible rat swarm in the western guard tower. They rushed to the prison early to get a peek at it before the Town Council meeting they had been invited to, as that was the next day. They immediately recognized their folly in engaging the haunted scythe with strong heads as Phiroz with his weak constitution(8 con) was the first to deal real damage to the scythe. He also found himself in a melee with it. Shale the towering man was unable to stand in the way to protect the godly man. The scythe scored a lucky hit under the priest's armor (scored a crit) and tore him open. Shale struck the scythe down with a mighty blow one round later, but it was too late. The damage had been done and the Priest was no more.

[Ben the Red]

Name: Akuum Nightwind
Race: Sylph
Classes/Levels: Swordsage/6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Schloss Caromarc, Drowned Menagerie
Catalyst: Leech Trap
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

First a bit of back story. The party's Barbarian, Luthar has a bit of PTSD after his whole village was murdered, and enters a blind rage (sort of like a flesh golem's berserk) whenever he gets a flashback (usually due to combat). He can only leave rage if the party's Oracle, Haver talks him down or if there's nothing left to attack.
So, for some reason the Oracle decided to go down the east path first while the rest of the group was still returning from the black pudding fight. He triggered the trap, failed his swim check and was swarmed with leeches. The rest of the party arrived to fight off the leeches, as they finished them off, the Oracle reached a Str of 0 and fell unconscious in the water. Akuum dived into the water to save him, and he got him to the surface before he drowned, but Luthar was still in a rage so he swung his great axe and (of course) crit Akuum, instantly killing the already weakened Swordsage with a near max damage critical hit.
Luthar had no more targets (the Sorcerer was hiding) so he de-raged and pulled his Oracle friend out of the water. The Oracle had an effective Con of 4, but managed to stabilize on his last roll before death.
I definitely didn't predict the leech trap would go this way...

[MurphysParadox]

Name: Sadron Matsura
Race: Elf
Classes/Levels: Inquisitor 11
Adventure: Ashes at Dawn
Location: The Greenhouse
Catalyst: Bad tactical choices

The Gory Details:

I ran a modified version of this fight which combined Merrick, the vampire spawn, and some dominated buffers and changed out Dragon for a pair of Quickwoods. It went amazingly well (see the Ashes of Dawn thread for a link to the modified encounter).

At the end of the fight, Merrick had come out and wild shaped into Fiendish Vampiric Behemoth Hippopotamus. The inquisitor was right next to her when this happened with his holy composite longbow out, so he decided to take a shot at point blank range. Her AOO was successful (rolled a 20 but no confirmed crit), as was the grab, and that + the level drain knocked him to -7. She spend the next round drinking his blood, doing max con drain and killing him quick successfully.

Name: Tobias
Race: Gnome until the last
Classes/Levels: Bard 11
Adventure: Ashes at Dawn
Location: The Greenhouse
Catalyst: Acrobatic Inability

The Gory Details:

Poor Tobias died right after the inquisitor when he tried to acrobatics away from the Fiendish Vampiring Behemoth Hippopotamus and rolled far less than necessary. Yet again, the hippo rolled a 20 on the AOO, but was also able to confirm the crit. Something like 8d8 + 28 damage later, the bard was dead before even the negative levels could affect him. While his upper half completed the somersault, he forgot to keep his legs tucked in... and attached.

Of course, this being Ashes at Dawn, the wizard teleported everyone to a church and everything was fixed up in no time. The inquisitor opted for a Resurrection so he wouldn't have to deal with any negative levels (since you can only clear one of the permanent negative levels per week and raise dead gives you two) while the Bard went with reincarnate from our druid (cheaper and more fun! Plus as a gnome, you almost always win out on this one). He rolled gnome and everyone was sad, so he let me roll to see what I'd have gotten. I, of course, rolled 00. So he became a tiefling!

[Pavane]

Name: Jax
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Rogue 7
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Schloss Caromarc
Catalyst: Promethean
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Panicking while trying to play dead.

[MurphysParadox]

Name: Tobias
Race: Tiefling (was Gnome until I got a 00 on the reincarnate)
Classes/Levels: Bard 12
Adventure: Ashes at Dawn
Location: The Abbey's winery
Catalyst: Green fire; so much green fire

The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

The party dispatched Radvir and his group with such ease, I figured I'd bump up the first fight of the Abbey too. So I moved the demon into the Winery and had the witchfires pop up about 4 rounds into combat (the six guards, modified to use crossbows, showing up another few rounds later).

The demon confused the bard and wizard, beat the monk and inquisitor hardily, but the inquisitor and a huge earth elemental took it down. The three Witchfires with their incorporeal qualities and their piles of fire damage did phenomenal harm to the party despite everyone having at least some resistance. One dead, two below 10, one around 20. They had to teleport home.

Tobias, upon his second resurrection in a week, decided he couldn't cut this adventuring business any more. He was still dealing with the massive change in his life that going from Gnome to Tiefling causes and he still hadn't told his father about the slight problem this will create around the dinner table. So he's off to see which god or goddess offers the best deal for turning him back into a Gnome (always the bargainer).

His replacement is a halfling paladin with a celestial giant bee mount because why not?

[Level 1 Commoner]

Name: Sergeant Bran
Race: Dwarf
Classes/Levels: Ranger 5
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: The basement of Dr. Brada's asylum
Catalyst: 2 Ghasts

The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Having unmasked and hunted down the homicidal alchemists during the last night and after talking with Karl my players already deduced what happened on Karb Isle. But they needed evidence for their assertions. So they climbed down the entrance shaft of the cellar. Almost everybody (except the paladin) fell prey to the stench during the descent. At the bottom they were attacked by the four Ghasts who were buffed with another HD and had maximum HP. Two went for the easiest target: the lighty armored dwarf with a ranged weapon who was in an exposed position. The samurai and Bran got paralyzed in round 1. The cleric thought that his positive energy channeling would bring them down by round 2. He was wrong. The last Ghast ripped off Sergeant Bran's throat and our brave scout died.

Deeming it unfair I didn't even use the Coup de Grace mechanism, but their normal attacks were enough for the poor fellow.

The other players offered Bran's player to pool together their monetary ressources and to ressurect him, but he didn't like this revolving door approach to death and declined this offer.

[Level 1 Commoner]

Name: Leto
Race: Nagaji
Classes/Levels: Samurai 6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Lightning Tower, Schloss Caromarc
Catalyst: The Guardian of the Tower

The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Six players were present that evening. So I made the opposition stronger. The entrance of the Lightning Tower was guarded by two Electrified Flesh Golems and everything had maximum HP. The group charged in formation over the bridge and fought the two Golems on the outside while the Guardian of Tower was busy breaking through the door. After two rounds he entered the fray just at the moment when the second Electrified Flesh Golem fell. Our Paladin and Leto were badly mauled by them. And our Cleric wasn't able to keep the Samurai at full hp because he underestimated the damage done to his colleagues and prefered to do some melee damage. During the next round the Guardian hit with every Claw attack. Together with the Rend damage Leto was struck for more than 50 points of damage and went to -18 hp which killed him on the spot.

And again one of my players insisted on playing man mode and declined the offer of a Raise Dead spell sponsored by Count Caromarc.

This second death made the players of Khair the Cleric and Leto reconsider their tactics. Leto intends to play a character with healing capabilites while Khair wants to focus on Buffing and Archery while providing only backup healing.

[Galnörag]

Name: Adrianna
Race: Half-elf
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 15
Adventure: Shadows of Gallowspire
Location: The Pinnacle
Catalyst: Adrianna
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

In the final battle atop Gallowspire Adrianna called upon her favourite spell, disintegrate, drawing a bead on Advion's undead form, her beam of destruction lanced straight and true into the chaos of melee striking Advion, failing to overcome his Soul Shield, the beam reflected back on her, failing her saving throw and crumbling to ash. (because 30d6 when your at 70 or so HP, and then roll really well is a bad thing.)

[Tirisfal]

Galnörag wrote:

Name: Adrianna

Race: Half-elf
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 15
Adventure: Shadows of Gallowspire
Location: The Pinnacle
Catalyst: Adrianna
The Gory Details:
** spoiler omitted **

That's so beautifully thematic.

[Rakshaka]

Galnörag wrote:

Name: Adrianna

Race: Half-elf
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 15
Adventure: Shadows of Gallowspire
Location: The Pinnacle
Catalyst: Adrianna
The Gory Details:
** spoiler omitted **

This just might be the coolest death I've seen in this thread. Bravo!

[Martiln]

Name:Caleb Awdest
Race:Human
Classes/levels:Vivisectionist/Internal Alchemist 4
Adventure:Tha Haunting of Harrowstone
Location:Secret Passageway
Catalyst:Gray Ooze
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Caleb was subjected to the Iron Maiden's curse beforehand, so his Constitution was dropped significantly, and was caught unawares by the Gray ooze. after being dropped to 0 HP and grabbed, he took his final swing at the ooze and hit, but it wasn't enough to kill it, so he started to bleed and also took damage from the Ooze's slime. Unfortunately, the next person on the initiative count was the ooze, so he had no chance to be healed...

[Galnörag]

Galnörag wrote:

Name: Adrianna

Race: Half-elf
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 15
Adventure: Shadows of Gallowspire
Location: The Pinnacle
Catalyst: Adrianna
The Gory Details:
** spoiler omitted **

Player written epilogue for his disintegrated character:

The shadow of Gallowspire is all encompassing, even with the constant gloom of clouds overhead. Centuries after a terrible attempt to free the Tyrant, the tower is still guarded by the Knights of Ozem.

A nameless knight stands his watch, knowing that while things are quiet, an attack could happen at any moment that could bring the world to its knees. Although a selfless task, this knight knows that he is protecting all of reality.

There is a small break in the ever-present clouds and a rare column of sunlight shines on this unnamed yet noble being. This is truly a sign that his work is not going unnoticed. He smiles and takes a deep breath. The air does not seem so rank.

Feeling a renewed sense of duty, he returns to his patrol, never noticing the small motes of dust suspended in the sunbeam that were once the makings of another being chosen by those same gods.

[Beornegar Ulfr]

Name: Solden
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Word Teleportist 9/Fighter 1
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Citadel of the Moon
Catalyst: Vrood
The Gory Details: Battle opened up with a sneak attack from me and a Bard (10) and Cleric/Rogue (6/4 opening with Blast Spells. This destroyed the minor undead and the cultists but not the clerics in the back. Rolling first on initiative I opened up with a 9D6 acid bleed spell on one of the cultist and a quickened 4D6 acid bleed on the other Cleric next came Vrood and since we were all bunched together at the start of the combat, he opened up with a Circle of Death killing the Bard and the Cleric/Rogue but I made the save due to the +2 from the Fighter level but it drained enough levels from me that his quickened, maximized Magic Missile's four shots dropped me to dying and the enemy clerics went right after him so the impending death knell was fore seen.

[Level 1 Commoner]

TPK?

[Level 1 Commoner]

Name: Ragnar Alaric
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Inquisitor of Calistria 6
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Ascanor Lodge
Catalyst: Lozarov's escape plan

The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

The third permanent character death in 5 sessions. I really need to tone down the opposition. Eight players were present due to the christmas holidays. So I exchanged the Dire Wolf which Lozarov conjures to cover his escape with a Vrock he summons via a Summon Monster VII scroll. This SHOULD have been a nice and moderately challenging fight while Lozarov tries to escape. Sadly the entire investigation in Ascanor Lodge went straight to hell.

After being denied entrance by the malicious Halfling porter the group accompanied Duristan into the woods and killed a big group of lycanthropic Barbarians (8 Level 3 and 4 Level 6 True Primitive Wild Ragers) who stalked their camp and killed 4 of the NPC guards. Finally they entered Ascanor Lodge with the help of Duristan and took a well deserved rest. The next morning the plot went off the rails. Considering Lozarov to be the only trustworthy person in Ascanor Lodge (he was hiding his alignment magically) they went straight to him with every piece of information they uncovered. The fun part was that they made all the right conclusions but had the wrong suspect: Delgross Kroitzer the huntsmaster. And in the course of 8 hours Lozarov went from mildly curious to fully paranoid as he realized that it would only be a matter of hours before they found out that he was the real culprit. His breaking point was reached when half of the group was sitting in the public library and found the information bits regarding the Dusk Moth and asked him for the book from his private library. Thinking that they were using the investigation in the library as a surveillance operation while the rest of the group prepared his apprehension, he used his only chance to escape. So he locked the trap door to his room, conjured the Vrock, buffed him with Mage Armor and escaped from Ascanor via Dimension Door.

The PCs in the library used the time to buff up a bit as the Vrock (who was unseen but at least heard) danced his Dance of Ruin but they didn't understand what grave threat was preparing their demise upstairs. Soon the entire top floor exploded and everybody in Ascanor took 5d6 electricity damage. After that a group of 4 unarmored and mostly unprepared casters (Bard 6, Cleric 7, Magus 7, Sorcerer 6) was attacked by the Vrock while all the heavy hitters were scattered over the Lodge looking for clues. Poor Ragnar had just interrogated Niama and was about to leave the brothel when he got hit by the lightning. He ran to the main house after healing the severely injured prostitute, but he didn't take the time to heal his own injuries.

Meanwhile the casters used every ressource at their disposal to keep him at bay while the Vrock kept hammering at them for 8 rounds. In round 9 the rest of the group finally arrived (the Paladin even had to make a detour to his room to get his weapon as he was completely unarmed while talking to the guards in the guard tower) and the Vrock took a severe beating. But in round 10 every debuff affecting him ran out and he finally got the opportunity to make a Full-Round-Attack against Ragnar who was shredded to pieces (despite his AC of 26) as he didn't took the time to heal up the damage from the Dance of Ruin at the beginning of the encounter. But everyone had great fun and the player is eager to try out another PF class (as he did only play D&D 3.5 before).

[Zhangar]

Beornegar Ulfr wrote:

Name: Solden

Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Word Teleportist 9/Fighter 1
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Citadel of the Moon
Catalyst: Vrood
The Gory Details: Battle opened up with a sneak attack from me and a Bard (10) and Cleric/Rogue (6/4 opening with Blast Spells. This destroyed the minor undead and the cultists but not the clerics in the back. Rolling first on initiative I opened up with a 9D6 acid bleed spell on one of the cultist and a quickened 4D6 acid bleed on the other Cleric next came Vrood and since we were all bunched together at the start of the combat, he opened up with a Circle of Death killing the Bard and the Cleric/Rogue but I made the save due to the +2 from the Fighter level but it drained enough levels from me that his quickened, maximized Magic Missile's four shots dropped me to dying and the enemy clerics went right after him so the impending death knell was fore seen.

That's... that's weird. Circle of Death doesn't work on 10th+ level characters and it doesn't inflict negative levels. And n 11th level caster shooting a quickened maximized magic missile that only did 4 missiles?

That's not how Circle of Death works, and Vrood can't normally do that with magic missile. I guess your DM made a lot of tweaks to the adventure?

[Level 1 Commoner]

Name: William Hunt
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Urban Barbarian 7
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: The Stairs of the Moon
Catalyst: An arrow to the eye

The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Now I am officially the resident Killer GM. I'm not happy about that. Still christmas holidays, still eight players. As usual I buffed up the group's enemies a bit and combined some encounters. The Vilkacis, Lozarov and the archers were defeated in a fun fight where the PCs took little damage, although Wiliam got dominated by the Vilkacis for 2 rounds. But several Dispel Magics and some crowd control from the bard saved the day. So I was confident that the rest of the Werwolfs at the Stairs fo the Moon would be not much harder. Cybrisa and Mathus were Rangers 8 and they were accompanied by 5 Rangers 6 in the Skychamber. Everybody had Favored Enemy Humanoid(Human). Armed with longbows they were waiting with readied actions as the (Aasimar) Paladin charged from the stairs. Due to his different subtype and some buffs he took very little damage from the opening salvo and we rolled initiative. The wolves rolled high and everybody but the Witch and William the Barbarian rolled low. So the witch ran into the chamber and tried to put Mathus into deep slumber. He made his Saving Throw and the Witch got shot by him and two of his bodyguards. Meanwhile William engaged three bodyguards in melee combat. They dropped their bows, drew their Greatswords and gave him a severe beating with a Power Attack/Vital Strike combo. During the next round he was healed up a little bit and stayed in melee as several enemies were confused by the wizard. His demise followed immediately as the unharmed Cybrisa targeted him with a Rapid-Shot-Attack. Two of the three arrows hit and the last was a critical with 51 points of damage (Composite Longbow with str +5, Favored Enemy +4, Point Blank Shot) and the brave but tactically unwise Barbarian died from an arrow that pierced his right eye and brain hemisphere (reduced to -40 hp). Sadly there is no opportunity to raise him from the dead since Courtaud is almost 2 weeks away. An Reincarnation would be feasible with the help of the Prince's Wolves but the player already chose the Iron Man mode when his first character (Sergeant Bran) died during the Trial of the Beast.

Lesson learned for me: The PCs MUST find a Scroll of Raise Dead soon. They had enough permanent character deaths (4 during the last 6 game sessions) for the entire AP.

Lesson learned for my players: A high initiative is not always good and you should never charge into the fray with an AC of 20 at level 6+.

[Rakshaka]

I love seeing obituaries because oddly enough, it almost reinforces a sense of community among all of the players and DMs; since we are playing against and sometimes falling to the same monsters, its interesting to note which ones are the most responsible for the most deaths.

As of this post, our top Player Killers are as follows:

Listed in Obituaries:

#1) Auren Vrood, with 19 confirmed kills on this thread (including a couple TPKs)
#2) The Splatterman, with 14 confirmed kills on this thread.
#3) Trolls in the Gatehouse, with 12 confirmed kills (14 including the trollhounds)
#4) The Aberrant Promethian, with 12 kills.
#5) The Lopper, with 9 grisly trophies.
#6) Gortis Vortch, with 8 decapitations under his belt.
#7-#10) Tied with 5 listed kills a piece are these encounters:
Air Elemental on the Bridge, Old Ember Maw, Burning Skeletona, and Clantus the Assassin.

[Tybid]

I nearly had another to add to the Auren Vrood encounter but they used two dex based harrow cards to jump in front of the circle of death and try to disrupt his spell before it went off. Rolled a three on my concentration check :/

[Charlie Bell]

Name: Avu
Race: Strix
Classes/Levels: rogue 8/ranger 1
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Feldgrau Tower
Catalyst: unwilling shield plus fast bombs

The Gory Details:
Name: Balistero
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Iomedaean inquisitor 9
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Feldgrau Tower
Catalyst: 8 negative levels plus a vampiric touch crit

The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

The PCs begin their assault on Feldgrau Tower from the top down, flying, climbing, or levitating to the top of the tower. The gnome alchemist explosive bombs the skeleton warrior archers to smithereens. Vrood, alerted by the explosions, begins buffing. The PCs round the corner toward his pavilion and take a cloudkill to the face. Frontliners are stymied by the crawling claws, but Avu the strix flies past to begin strafing Vrood with Flyby Attack. Vrood sticks unwilling shield on Avu. The gnome alchemist Spellcrafts it, and knows what it does, yet decides that it's worth taking down Vrood quickly even if it means damaging Avu. Vrood gets a full attack of hasted Rapid Shot fast bombs. Vrood has resist fire. Avu does not and takes massive damage through the unwilling shield.

The gnome switches to force bombs and manages to damage Vrood enough for him to go greater invisible and start his spectral hand sniping, but not before his wand of enervation wielding homunculus hits the gnome with 7 or so negative levels. The gnome takes the better part of valor and flies away, never to be seen again in that combat. Meanwhile, the rest of the party lacks a good way to deal with invisibility. 11 rounds of invisible eyebite harassment later, Balistero the inquisitor has taken 8 negative levels when Vrood crits him with vampiric touch. Dead, no save.

One round later, Vrood's greater invis wears off and the party fighter cuts him down with all the tender mercy Vrood showed to the two dead PCs.

[NobodysHome]

Charlie Bell wrote:

Name: Avu

Race: Strix
Classes/Levels: rogue 8/ranger 1
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Feldgrau Tower
Catalyst: unwilling shield plus fast bombs

The Gory Details:
Name: Balistero
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Iomedaean inquisitor 9
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Feldgrau Tower
Catalyst: 8 negative levels plus a vampiric touch crit

The Gory Details:
** spoiler omitted **...

I'm curious...

Vrood spoiler:

Did you intentionally allow the party to be 9th level before encountering Vrood to avoid the pretty-much-inevitable, "Half your party is dead thanks to Circle of Death" that so many of us "enjoyed", or was it just happy circumstance?

[Wyrd_Wik]

Just ran Vrood the other week. No deaths save for the druid's animal companion, Craig the moose, as miraculously everyone made the Will save.

It was a good fight but no gory PC deaths so far...

[Charlie Bell]

NobodysHome wrote:

I'm curious...
** spoiler omitted **

Happy circumstance.

Spoiler:

They systematically cleared EVERYTHING in Feldgrau before tackling the tower. Unbeknownst to them, it was the smartest thing they could have done.

I did, however, give Vrood an extra level of Agent of the Grave to fix the problem with his stat block (no 6th level spell access if he's 11th level). I also switched out his wand of animate dead for a wand of enervation, both because it made him more dangerous and because it's better treasure.

[Zandalus Sees!]

After enjoying reading through everyone else's deaths, I figure it's time to add some from my own campaign.

Name: Fridjwilma
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Ranger2/ Rogue 1
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Nevermore
Catalyst: Bad Luck

Name: Nilrem the Well Endowed
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 3
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Nevermore
Catalyst: Bad Timing

Name: Sir George
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Paladin 3
Adventure: The Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Nevermore
Catalyst: Bad Choices

The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

The party, consisting of the three deceased and the dwarven druid Tanji (The fifth member of the party, a cleric of Pharasma, couldn't make it that day) had cleared out the top two levels of Harrowstone, and were on track to finish off the dungeon. Fridjwilma, an archer, had made the unfortunate mistake in using the Lopper's axe as a backup weapon, and found the axe perpetually winding up in her hands whenever she tried to draw her bow (and during conversation with the locals, and of course while she slept, as it made it's nightly attempts to slit her throat.) Instead of trying to banish the lopper immediately and remove the curse, the party decided to clear out the "trash" first before facing the larger threats.

They banished the Marauder, found the Warden's corpse, and dealt with the ooze lurking in the secret passage. Despite being low on resources, they decided to only heal some of their damage before heading on. Into the Nevermore, which they mistook for the Oubliette. They took more damage from the collapsing wall before the Splatter Man appeared, summoning monsters and spraying magic missiles everywhere.

Nilrim started firing magic missiles back, doing reasonable damage, while George set about slowly making his way through the rubble with the apparent intent of using his lay on hands offensively. Tanji and Fridj, meanwhile, noticing the dead wizard's reluctance to fire at the holder of his spellbook, spent a baffling amount of time tossing it back and forth and flipping through the pages pointlessly before finally ramming a spear through it.

Nilrim went down first, the victim of a swarm of summons and his own atrocious AC. He was followed by George, who never came close to reaching his opponent, Fridj, who who died without ever having a chance to fire her ghost touch arrows, and the second of what would be Tanji's many dead animal companions. It was only at that point that Tanji considered retreat, fleeing back through the secret tunnel and towards town.

It was a surprising near TPK, as a party that had been pretty smart through the rest of the adventure (and hadn't been afraid to run away from bad situations before,) just broke down in a complicated situation.

[Zandalus Sees!]

Name: Bitey the Goblin
Race: Goblin
Classes/levels: Magus 5 (I think)
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: The Karb Isle Sanctuary
Catalyst: Swarmed by Ghasts.
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Bitey, somewhat overconfident in his high AC and damage, volunteered to be first into the hole leading to the cellar of the wrecked hospital. Following a poor perception check, initiative and Fort save, he found himself paralyzed without ever taking a turn. Still somewhat leery of risks after losing three members by sticking around in a losing fight, the party simply huddled around the entrance without venturing in to risk their own hides (though Tanji sacrificed yet another bear in an attempt to help) and watched as the ravenous undead tore out their companion's throat.

Name: Bitey the Goblin
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Magus 6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Judge Daramid's living room.
Catalyst: Vorkstag's revenge.
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

The party was in town restocking on supplies before venturing back into the Scloss when an urchin handed them a note informing them that the Judge wanted to see them. After being let into Daramid's home by the maid and introduced to a waiting paladin, they set about drinking tea and making small talk while waiting for the Judge to arrive. Of course, the tea was full of lich dust, the paladin was an antipaladin of the whispering way, and Vorkstag had stolen the maid's skin after failing to kill Judge Daramid. The pair of assassins, due to some AMAZINGLY one-sided dice rolls, managed to kill Bitey before he could take his turn (again) and made their escape with his corpse.

And, just for fun:
Name: Bear, Bear-bear, Bear-bear-bear, Bear-bear-bear-bear, Bear-bear-bear-bear-bear, and Tiger.
Race: Bears and Tigers
Classes: Animal Companions
Catalysts: Gurtis Vorch, The Splatter Man, Ghasts, Trolls, falling off a bridge, and the Aberrant Promethean.
The Gory Details: Tanji Thanadora; a sociopathic Dwarven druid, does not take good care of her pets.

[Lithrian]

Name: Ralik
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Rogue 2 / Wizard [universalist] 2
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Chymic Works
Catalyst: Fighting Opponents on Three Fronts
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

After returning from the Santuary, the party was certain they needed to speak with the owners of the Chymic Works. When they rang the bell, however, they were very disappointed in the response, so they decided to be more direct in their questioning. While the party monk went for the loading dock, the rogue climbed to the roof. While each of them were holding their own (grappling V, fighting snapjaws), the barbarian was downstairs bashing at the front gate.

Ultimately, the hound and V provided enough distraction that the rogue was left on the roof (unconscious) after having killed a snapjaw, with G active up there. G saw the opportunity to dispatch a fallen foe, and did so with extreme prejudice, smashing his face with a hand axe, and taking his stuff before disappearing into the night.

[Keep Calm and Carrion]

Name: Sascha
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 6 (Undead bloodline)
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Hanging House
Catalyst: A Private Conversation with a Totenmaske

The Gory Details:

A player new to the game--both to this campaign, and to tabletop in general--joined the party near the end of the Beast’s trial, and accompanied them on their mission to rescue the Beast from mysterious Castle Caromarc.

In my campaign, the Count was the captive of a totenmaske with Archivist Bard levels who was impersonating him. This lieutenant of the Whispering Way could steal the Count’s alchemical knowledge by devouring his living flesh, and so was able to decipher the Carrion Crown formula for Adivion Adrissant. It stayed in Hanging House after Vrood and the rest left to continue plundering the Count’s mind. After the trial, the totenmaske summoned and imprisoned the Beast with the Bondslave Thrall, planning to use him for nefarious errands.

The party met the totenmaske after a brutal fight with the air elemental, and though very suspicious of its mad ways, decided to try to pump it for information. Regrettably, the sorcerer pulled it aside for conversation and gave the game away with a slip of the tongue. The totenmaske tore her apart before the others could get to her side.

She used a harrow card/hero point to avoid final death, clinging to life in a pool of her blood.

[Keep Calm and Carrion]

Name: Emeric Von Graves
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Alchemist 6 (Beastmorph)
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Caromarc’s Lab

Name: Adriandrea
Race: Changeling
Classes/levels: Witch 6 (Hedge Witch)
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Caromarc’s Lab

Catalyst: Charging the Aberrent Promethean

The Gory Details:

Having absolutely devastated the four-armed Tower Guardian in a five-on-one fight, the party had gotten a false sense of confidence in their ability to dispatch anything the Count had sewn together. They dimissed the Count’s homonculus Waxwood’s warnings about the power of the Aberrent Promethean and surged up through the trapdoor to take it down.

The Aberrent Promethean shrugged off their initial volley of attacks and tore them to pieces. The dwarf inquisitor who had lobbied the hardest for rushing in was the first to fall, knocked into negatives after failing to penetrate the construct's DR with a hail of crossbow bolts. He was pulled to safety, but the Aberrent Promethean made short work of the witch, killing her with a single AoE when she tried to cast a spell...its Grab and Constrict are deadly. The party fled, but the bottleneck at the trapdoor meant the alchemist took a round of attacks and was gutted.

They used harrow cards/hero points to avoid final death, dragging themselves out of the room after the construct retreated to rebuild its webs. That’s all the get out of death free cards the party had--they’ll be adventuring with no safety net until after the Stairs of the Moon.

[Joey Virtue]

Keep Calm and Carrion wrote:

Name: Sascha

Race: Human
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 6 (Undead bloodline)
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Hanging House
Catalyst: A Private Conversation with a Totenmaske

** spoiler omitted **

I tried to send you a PM but since you dont have a profile it seems like I cant do it

Im really interested in your totenmaske and how you were playing it up please let me know I want a WW operative in the Trial of the Beast

[Level 1 Commoner]

Name: Hank + Sam
Race: Human + Roc
Classes/Levels: Beastmaster Ranger 8 + Boon Companion
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Feldgrau
Catalyst: Coup de Grace with a Scythe and a Circle of Death from Auren Vrood
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:

Only one session without killing a PC. Some of my players are seriously angry now and we will probably return to our regular RPG soon because of the PC death spree. The group entered Feldgrau and were welcomed by a Whispering Way Curate and her platoon of Skeletal Champions while two invisible Cultists were waiting for an opportunity to strike. The Curate let her skeletons engage the frontline character while the Cultist were moving into position. Hank sent Sam his Roc companion to distract the curate. She got bullrushed into of the houses and repeatedly casted Ghoul's Touch on the overgrown turkey in return. Meanwhile the Cultists attacked Hank and the Oracle with Sneak Attacks. So Sam was on his own and failed his second save. During the next round the Curate did a Coup de Grace with her Scythe and beheaded him. The result was that the player is seriously pissed off now, because he spent more energy into the creation of the bird than his Ranger.

But adding insult to injury Hank met his end at the hands of Auren Vrood who defended the tower with his last minions. The invisible Wizard waited until enough PCs were in the main room and then casted his dreaded Circle of Death. Everybody was protected by Death Ward and had a free Reroll because of Desna's Blessing from the Stairs of the Moon. But Hank failed both rolls and fell was instantly slain.

Lessons learned for me: Save-or-Die are so unfun that they will be banned/not used from now on and Coup de Grace is even worse. Helpless is bad enough as a condition. No need for an unbeatable auto-death-attack. I don't know how to proceed now. The player lost his third character now (one death was intentional as he didn't like his Unbreakable Fighter and wanted to switch to Samurai) and has probably lost any interest in playing PF.

[MurphysParadox]

Perhaps your players shouldn't send an animal companion to one-on-one a spell caster outside the range of party support? The adventure is dangerous, but that can be mitigated by smart tactics on the player side and pulling punches on the GM's side. Though, of course, this isn't necessarily a good place for this discussion, heh.