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Character Name: Teme'reh Bearfoot
Race/Class: Human Cleric of Erastil
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: In the Taraska River
Catalyst: A couple of really hungry giant fish and a couple of opportunistic giant frogs
The fish attacked as the last wagon in the caravan had almost made it across the river. The wagon had Tem, Shalelu, and Belevek (one of Sandru's hired Varisian drivers) in it.
Good uses of fly spells and a Barbarian with Overrun made for a bloody battle for both sides. I decided the fish and frogs would just grab a PC snack and drag it under to drown it and eat it below water. At one point I had both Tem and Zandu (a Rogue/Cleric of Abadar) in fish mouths, but only one of them survived the attacks of opportunity that hauling their meals away triggered. Zandu was left above water, Tem went under with the fish.
Avengard (Elven Cleric of Desna), Wolcanus (Human Wizard), and Xankas (Half-Orc Barbarian) all leapt in after Teme'reh to save him, but it was Avengard who witnessed the terrible terrible bloody murder of a man by a fish. Up close and personal.
Its been decided that Teme'reh will come back using The Amatatsu Seal. I'm looking forward to crafting just how the Five Storms react to that little blip on their radar.
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Name: Zandu Caleran
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Rogue 3/Cleric of Abadar 4
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Causeway of The Nameless Spire
Catalyst: Invisibility and a case of Friendly Fire(ball)
Zandu has been the scout of the party. He jumped the gap in the causeway, triggering the Hoarfrost Spirits. They tore him up pretty good, so he cast Vanish and backed off (into the tower, triggering the Wraiths) to heal himself. The Wraiths got close enough to the door, and the venerable Wizard with the penchant for flame only saw undead things (he didn't see where Zandu had gone to heal himself up) and unloaded an Empowered Fireball. The Rogue with Evasion blew his Reflex save.
56 points of fire damage later, there was a pile of ash and bones with a short sword sticking out of it.
They're using The Amatatsu Seal to bring him back. This will be the second time in as many months they've had to use it (see the post about Teme'reh above) so I have some extra things to look into in terms of extra evil goodies waiting for them on the other side of The Wall of Heaven.
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Name: Avengard E'lleril
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Cleric of Desna 7
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Storm Sphere
Catalyst: Katiyana's spite
The party made it to the top of The Nameless Spire and was met with Katiyana and the Hoarfrost Spirits. Katiyana caught the entire group in an Unholy Blight before Avengard grabbed Xankas (Half-Orc Barbarian) and used Dimension Door to pop up next to her on one of the platforms. After a few rounds of Katiyana swooping back and forth to get away from the big honkin' Orc's Falchion, and a combination of previous injury from the way up the tower, the Storm Sphere tossing Lightning Bolts everywhere, and Katiyana's Negative Energy Channeling, Avengard fell.
He was dying, but not dead. But Xankas (who was at this point under the effect of a Fly spell, was still a heavy threat. Katiyana channeled again in an attempt to put down the Barbarian, inadvertently catching the downed Avengard in the blast...though honestly she could not have cared less. Even after making his Will save for half damage, it put Avengard too far into the negatives and he was gone.
Xankas made sure to slice Katiyana in half for that, and she was shredded by the winds of the Morozko outside.
Aww, J-ko, you run your game roughly when I rum mine.
Two deaths in as many sessions.
Name: Unicas
Race: Human
Class/levels: Universalist Wixard 8
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Tunuak's lair
Catalyst: Teamwork between Tunuak and Naquun
The party of three finds themselves attempting their acrobatics checks to move down the spiral ridge into Tunuak's lair. The wizard, unable to consistantly succeed at the checks, casts fly on himself. Without good light, he cannot see the bottom of the chasm. Naquun finds himself down many hit points. From prone, he casts invisibility and rolls off the ledge, incurring the falling damage. The party's still at the top of the zone and fighting off the Hoarfrost Spirits. After a couple rounds, Naquun's healed most of his damage. The party begins to advance. Tunuak, seeing the flying caster uses his ability to become invisible, dispels the wizard's fly, letting Naquun come out of delay, re-focus his ranger enemy onto the wizard, full round him, and take the wizard town to two from con. The wizard fails his next two stabilization checks and dies. Because the NPCs are the same level as the PCs (party of three, NPCs are good support characters; Ameiko's dead, too), Koya had a scroll of raise dead and enough diamond dust to remove the two levels.
Name: Sandru
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Human Swashbuckler Rogue 8
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Katiyana's Spire
Catalyst: Moonflower
The party's exploring the Nameless Spire and Sandru's their NPC tag-along for the day. He gets bullrushed into the black slush, incurring con damage. Wights take him down three levels as soon as he gets in the door. The party rounds the door to the Moonflower. Sandru is the only one to notice it lurking in the middle of the room; Sandru wins initiative in the surprise round. He runs up adjacent to the flower. The flower, for his surprise round, emits his pulse of light; the entire party fails the fortitude save. Sandru hacks ineffectively at the Moonflower. On its turn, which was second in the line-up, the flower bites and grapples our favorite rogue. On its next turn, Sandru's swallowed and cocooned with about 10 hp to dead (negative levels and con damage, y'all). The party has no clue what's going on. Sandru perishes, but not before the party finally fells the Moonflower. Unfortunately, since they're still blind, they're unaware of Sandru's fate until the six seconds after he dies. In one hour he resurrects as a Moonflower, and they're intent on taking it on again.
I am loving the lethality in The Hungry Storm! Woo, go TEAM MONSTER! :)
The Hungry Storm gave me my only kills so far (just finish Part 4) that happened while the uber-support-Oracle of Life was still alive and just standing there helpless to prevent them (not that there haven't been other kills, but they were always the oracle!), both in the final dungeon. Then again, they were both cheap shots:
1) Greater Shadow of the High Priestess of Fumeiyoshi comes out of the wall and one-shots the 5 Strength Druid
2)Rogue goes over to Possessed Bormurg and the harem by himself at the top of initiative, fails vs gaze and is paralyzed, and then Katiyana through Bormurg orders a coup de grace, which happens immediately afterwards.
Two friendly NPCs fall.
Character Name: Habesuta Hatsue
Race/Class Female Human Monk/Paladin of Irori, Ameiko's BFF!
Character Name: Orometsu Yasi
Race/Class Female Human Fighter, challenger from the Ruby Phoenix Tournament, now PC paladin's cohort.
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Imperial Market guard attack.
Catalyst: Samurai guards + challenge + power attack + critical hit
What happened:While the three main PC heavy hitters stormed the guard tower with flight and the Testsubo of the Titans for roof opening, the rest of the heroes and NPCs faced the ground level guards that appeared moments later.
Long story short, I rolled unusually high on NPCs without heavy armor.
Breath of Life and a Resurrection from the oracle brought them back, though with an extra negative level.
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I am loving the lethality in The Hungry Storm! Woo, go TEAM MONSTER! :)
Tell me about it! This book seriously takes no prisoners. For example...
Name: Zandu Caleran
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Rogue 3/Cleric of Abadar 4
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Boreal Expanse
Catalyst: A Very Hungry Frost Worm
Six days after the fight with Katiyana, the Death From Below random encounter was rolled. They were definitely still in the Boreal Expanse so...
The worm burst out from under the ice, sending the wagons into a big jumbled pile. Wormy used his breath weapon, dealing just over 50 points of damage to people who didn't make the save. That was Zandu. We're using the optional massive damage rules, so Zandu had to make a DC 15 Fortitude save or die outright from system shock. He rolled a 14 and was frozen solid to the floor of the wagon.
At this point Avengard, a Cleric of Desna, was still dead (see my last post) so his body was in storage while they waited for the Amatatsu Seal to recharge. (The player was playing as Ulf in the meantime) With two dead characters, they decided to wait it out with a semi-nomadic group of Snowcaster Elves. Avengard is back, but Zandu has gone to the Boneyard.
This book man. Nasty with a Capital NAS.
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Aww, J-ko, you run your game roughly when I rum mine.
Yeah, we are kinda running neck and neck, aren't we? Did your group start in January as well? We've been going weekly (Give or take a vacation week) since the start of the year, though I haven't had much of any need to post here in the obituaries until Book 3.
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You know, reading those deaths makes me kinda weird because the biggest threat to my party in Jade Regent... is my party in Jade Regent.
Anyway, I'm back, baby!!!
Name: Huda Mann
Race/Class: Human Bard
Origin: I... I don't know. Probably Maranha, our group's version of India.
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Namidakawa Lake, en route to the manor house
Cause of Death: Lost character sheet, DM BS-ing in replacement character
.....What?: No. Really. We killed a character because he lost the character sheet. That, and he really didn't like playing him anymore anyway.
So How'd You Manage This: The group set sail for the manor of the evil incestuous pearl merchant Chang Ling, and were accosted by two dragon turtles I hastily reskinned as giant Magikarp-esque... giant carp. They slew the giant fish, despite not being able to trip or sneak attack them, so I guess a challenging fight counts as a challenging fight.
When Suddenly: When we picked Jade Regent up months later, we had the aforementioned realizations about Huda. He made a replacement kitsune sorcerer named Tadaka, so I have to finagle a way to shoehorn this replacement in without resorting to "I HAVE TO GO NOW. MY HOME PLANE NEEDS ME. (doot doot do doot) NOTE: HUDA DIED ON THE WAY BACK TO HIS HOME PLANE." So I come up with "As you continue your journey to the manor house, you notice one of the giant Magikarp isn't as dead as you thought it was!!"
The giant Magikarp leapt over the raft, with a battle cry of "Karrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp~" and caught Huda in its mouth before disappearing back underwater. I described a lot of bubbles billowing to the top of the water.
Then a lot of blood.
Megumi, the oracle: Oh my God! He still had the Decanter of Endless Sake on him!! D:
Decanter: Bloop! (floats to the top)
Finally, the Magikarp floated to the top of the lake, stone cold dead, followed by what was left of Huda. The group mourned him for nearly a second, then started to loot what useful stuff they could.
Pan Li, the Monk/Fighter: Wait a minute, he was wearing chain mail. Shouldn't he sink to the bottom of the lake?
Chain Mail and Some of Huda's Torso: Blorp! (sinks)
Well, 5 books in, the first party death happens!
Name: Anterbok Redgrimore
Race/Class: Tiefling Barbarian 12
Origin: The Cinderlands
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Mud hut village outside Shosaito's manor
Cause of death: Ninja assassination
The party has been harassed by Kaibuninsho before this, he did kill the paladin's mount, but he got the job done this time. Anterbok left the wall of fire protection our summoner had set up to protect from the ghouls, and Kaibuninsho struck. Anterbok failed his fortitude save and died. We found out later he should have made the save and just forgot to add some numbers, but it was 3 rounds later so I couldn't hand wave what happened. Anterbok came back to life in a bad way 2 rounds after dying, as the demon who is his ancient sire noticed him and sent him back to the world of the living as a fiery monster of destruction. This eventually passed, but not before Anterbok attacked (and pretty badly wounded) his best friend in the party. And now said demon has branded Anterbok with his sign...muheheheheh.
The ghouls also came veeeeerrrryyyy close to another death, as they had the summoner paralyzed and went for the coup de grace. The paladin used a spell that allowed herself to take the damage and effects, then spent 2 hero points to stabilize. Kaibuninsho also barely escaped with his life, but he'll be back...now the party is on HYPER alert at night...
After re-reading the character sheets, you're right! I did spell Anterbok's last name wrong. It's Redgormor. His last name is almost never mentioned, so I just misremembered it in my head.
Also, no deaths this past game but those dread wraiths in the shadow maze are NASTY. Doesn't help that the party hasn't figured out the relation between the inro and the gates yet...
Also, no deaths this past game but those dread wraiths in the shadow maze are NASTY. Doesn't help that the party hasn't figured out the relation between the inro and the gates yet...
I know what you mean. Of all the times, my dice decided they suddenly really hated the PCs.
That was the closest the party ever came to a TPK in the whole AP.
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This is it. After three years, six books, and a mountain of dead characters... Closure. Felina, Everybody Dies, Survival, All Good Things, What You Leave Behind, Goodbye Farewell and Amen, We Can Change the World/No One Is Alone; whatever you wanna call it, this is it. The series finale.
Yes, my friends, this is the final Jade Regent obituary from Snorb E. Snorb.
Name: Koichi Matsui, The Jade Regent
Race/Class: Tiefling Samurai
Origin: Born in Seigyoku (our group's Japan), moved with his grandfather to Xianghua (group's China)
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The throne room of the Imperial Palace
Cause of Death: Best. Critical hit. Ever.
END GUY!!!!1!!!1!1111!!!11!!: Yep. It seems quite appropriate to make the party's defeat of the final boss the last of these.
The Buildup to the Big Fight: After getting the blessings of the five ruling families, the party takes the goodwill built up by their badass recruitment of the three ninja clans, geisha gossips, and Jiro's ronin...
...and proceed to spend a week or so crafting magic items.
Fortunately for them, they did it in an area where time didn't pass as quickly-- the Island of the Dead.
As they head back to Jiro's family inn for one last point, they pass the event where Jiro's sohei are on the hangman's gallows. I switched that to "four people the Jade Regent had captured and dressed up as them, all to lure them out into a trap."
Me: (after the fight is over) Well, one of the stunt doubles adjusts "her" breasts underneath her clothing. An apple and pear fall out, and Qi, you can see she has a full beard.
Qi: ...This is so wrong.
Pan Li's Player: "You idiots!! You captured their STUNT DOUBLES!!"
All of Us: XD
I had to describe the rest of the party's "stunt doubles" as an ordinary woman wearing cat ears and a tail (because none of the Jade Regent's guards felt like getting a kitsune ear and tail set), the most insultingly blatant Japanese geisha stereotype imaginable, and a man dressed in a vanara fursuit. When asked about its origin, its owner said "the Jade Regent's men arrested me, shaved my dog in front of me, and then made me wear its fur!"
Pan Li: Nothing wrong with that.
Not-Pan Li: And then they made the dog soup!!
Megumi: Oh, what kind of soup?
Not-Pan Li: No! They made the dog INTO soup!!
Qi: ...Oh.
Hilarity Ensued: Once they left the capital's main square, they returned to the inn for one last buying spree. I mention to the group "Well, this is like that part in Final Fantasy IX where you come to the save moogle, and he tells you that this is the last time you might be able to save, kupo, so you should get what you need to do now before it's too late. And you do, and you go on, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, bam. Necron." The group decides, "Y'know, instead of investigating this food shortage, let's just storm the damn castle."
I show them the blueprint, explain what needs explaining, and after some rules-related mishaps involving Cloud Walk, the group has their in. Instead of storming the castle and slogging through combat, they cast Invisibility on themselves, then Cloud Walk (this way, they look like invisible cloud versions of themselves) and enter the Imperial Palace on the fourth floor.
After searching the entire fourth floor, they go down a floor, and a couple of guest rooms and the tea room later, they decide, "Let's just go this way. It looks like a throne room, though."
Me: Hang on a second, Cory. I gotta be a jerk here and ask you to print out a few pages for me.
Cory: What? Well, all right, but you really should have done this before you got here.
Me: I know, but I wasn't exactly expecting you guys to bypass the entire final dungeon!
Cory: To be fair, it wasn't exactly intentional. =p
Me: Besides, this is that moment where you're approaching the throne room, and you see the box appear onscreen, "Behind this door lies unspeakable evil. Shalt thou put an end to this heresy? [Yea] [Nay]"
It's the Throne Room: The Jade Regent and his hangers on are waiting for them. Surprise, surprise. Pan Li marches front and center into the throne room, drops his invisibility in front of everyone, and demands the Jade Regent's surrender.
Jade Regent: Very well! I accept, vanara! (draws his katana) I shall be your second, if you so desire!
Me: (dropping character) Yes, that counts as his samurai challenge.
The combat begins.
I realize the Tactics part of the stat block might need some tweaking after Renshii is knocked unconscious in about two rounds. (Qi had Suishen, a sap with Sap Mastery, and black lotus venom on Suishen, plus a critical hit.) She goes down clutching her stomach, saying something about "the baby..."
Anamuramon: WHAT!? A BABY?! YOU TOLD ME YOU WERE JUST USING HER SEXUALLY!!!
The Jade Regent: We'll talk about this LATER, grandfather! >=(
Pan Li's Player: Hey, guys, does anybody else feel like we just walked onto the series finale of a soap opera? Like she's pregnant and everybody's getting killed one by one.
Qi's Player: Oh, wow. I would've just sapped her if I knew she was pregnant.
Me: Well, uh, she took Con damage, got knocked out, and got poisoned. The baby's kinda a red puddle on the Jade Throne's cushion...
Pan Li's Player: (to the healer's player) Cast Breath of Life on the baby!! XD
Once Pan Li gets the Raven Prince tripped and seriously injured, he asks him if he surrenders. The Raven Prince, deciding discretion is the better part of valor, says "I'm no idiot-- I'm only in it for the money" and backs off.
The Jade Regent finally gets some time to charge Pan Li. Thanks to his newly-purchased Swordsman's Flair, the Jade Regent gets to roll a grand total of zero attack rolls in this entire combat as he is knocked prone, his charge cancelled, stunned, brutally beaten, and finally, finally, thanks to Pan Li's Perfect Strike critical, gets Nighty Night.
The resulting flurry of blows drops him to -57 health. Pan Li's player describes what happens as "It only looks like I hit him in the head once, but I slam my quarterstaff into the side of his head over and over again!"
Me: All right. You hear and see his kabuto helmet give, followed by his skull.
Goretacular: Anamuramon gives a mighty Lavos scream, and bites it in another round thanks to Suishen, Pan Li, and Quickened Enervation.
Number of healing spells cast by the party this entire fight: ONE.
The Brinewall Legacy
Duster Ross: Male human gunslinger, played by Mike. Best friend of Lin Mao, a female nekojin gunslinger (replacing Shalelu, who was rather busy at the time with Rise of the Runelords.) 'MURICA the stereotype, Duster was there "to kill your kung fu mans and sleep with your womens." Got his back broken by the decapus in Brinewall Castle's basement.
Night of Frozen Shadows
Hadji Abobo: Male human summoner/bard, played by Mike. Joined the party after Duster got bent in half. In the city of Tsai Tseng, he met a barbarian who didn't like him, and in a case of mistaken identity, took a rage-powered battleaxe critical to the guts.
Fhen Fahn: Female human summoner, also played by Mike. Joined the party immediately after Hadji got split in half by the barbarian, had the best eidolon ever: The Origami Bushi. Developed a crush on Vata after he saved her life fighting an earth elemental, found out Vata was banging the nekojin gunslinger, hired Qi to kill Vata's girlfriend but never actually paid her. Decided the proper answer to the question "Did you have anything to do with Lin Mao's death?" was "I caste Haste and get the hell out of Dodge." Was blown up by one of Vata's alchemist bombs.
The Hungry Storm
Nam Jung-Su: Male human monk/cleric, played by Damien. Looked like Aang from The Last Airbender. Was one of the initial party members, a student of Koya's. Was kinda a little bit bloodthirsty for a twelve-year old not-Korean monk, encouraging the party to kill about one fourth of the citizens of Iaquat because the hearthmistress was rude to them. Did something to piss Vata off, wound up getting Bestow Curse (-6 Constitution) put on him, followed by a negative encounter with Vata's alchemist breath weapon. Twice. Just to make sure he was dead.
Raju: Male human trapper ranger, also played by Damien. The son of Iaquat's village chief, surprisingly did not hold a grudge against the party for killing some of his closest friends. Died the very session he was introduced due to a yuki-onna. Many a laugh was had by the group when this beautiful woman surrounded by snow truthfully said her name was Yuki. (Damien said "I thought it was a made-up name! D:")
Vata Perada: Male air genasi alchemist, played by Ziggy. One of the initial party members, and had a crush on Lin Mao since childhood. Was kinda a goofball, responsible for getting quite a few people killed. Ultimately died alongside Raju and Koya during the yuki-onna fight. To be fair, he DID try to give her a potion of Reduce Person, but he did that to everybody.
Forest of Spirits
Mei Ling: Female human diviner, played by Damien. The particulars on her are a bit fuzzy, unfortunately. They met her in the mountains after leaving Iaquat, and when the group was ambushed by ninjas in Ordu-Agahei, she complained about being on the wrong end of a bleed attack while she was guzzling a couple gallons of healing potion. One of the other party members bashed her skull in with a mace while she was asleep, so I guess that solved that.
Mokiyama: Male kitsune oracle, played by Mike. Was absolutely awesome, starting from when he replaced Fhen back in Book Two. Had an absolutely hilarious one-sided crush on Pan Li which he played to total creepiness/hilarity. Was wrong on more levels than most PCs can count. Was responsible for murdering Mei Ling, and sentenced to commit seppuku with a bokken. He ran himself through with it instead of slashing his stomach open, but he drove it through his guts all the way to the grip and didn't cry out once, so... mission accomplished?
Twitchi-aroo: Male nezumi monk, played by Mike. Mike's final character before he moved to Barnegat, Twitch was supposed to be the group's guide through the Forest of Spirits. Unfortunately, Mike moved before the game finished, so he got pulled through a metal grating head-first by araneas and torn apart like rice paper.
Tide of Honor
Huda Mann: Male human bard, played by Ziggy. Don't quite remember how he joined the party, just that he replaced Vata after the incident in Iaquat. Was an utter goofball with his spell selection (as expected) and was fun personified (as expected.) Tragically, getting bored with Huda, along with losing his character sheet, contributed to his death, so he got eaten by a Magikarp the size of a house.
The Empty Throne
This was the least lethal book of the Adventure Path. Everybody lives, Rose! Just this ONCE, EVERYBODY LIVES!
The Final Party
Zhai Qi: Female human ninja, played by Booke. Sister of Zhai Jai-Li, the replacement Ameiko, and second in line for the Jade Throne should something happen to her big sis. Loved the vanishing trick ninjutsu, and one of the biggest regrets was telling her player about the master ninjutsu that granted Greater Invisibility. Went through half of the campaign with three fingers missing, only remembered to get them regenerated before the final boss fight. One of two characters to live through the entire Adventure Path from start to finish. Serves as the head of her sister's guard/assassin if need be, and is pregnant with Pan Li's child.
Pan Li: Male vanara weaponmaster monk/fighter, played by Cory. Best friend of Sandru, who sadly got no real character development beyond being driven to madness by Pan Li constantly renaming the caravan. Made Qi fall in love with him thanks to an Elixir of Love. Tripped every thrice-damned thing he fought with Perfect Strike, Greater Trip, Vicious Stomp, and Combat Reflexes. Loved the character, hated his combat efficiency. The other character to survive from Brinewall to la finale semi-grande. Ripped Renshii's bracelet from her unconscious body, proposed to Qi with it, so now he and Jai-Li are siblings-in-law. Started a trip-fu monastery in the Forest of Spirits.
Megumi Ito: Female human oracle, played by Damien. Just barely got the hell out of Ordu-Agahei after Prince Dakkar closed it off. Was actually a pretty decent character, and she helped draw some aggro off Pan Li during the final boss fight with a summoned behir (which we all decided was "close enough" to an Asian dragon.) Started a temple in the capital of Xianghua dedicated to charity healing, was soon summoned back to her homeland. Something about needing to find magical girls...
Tadaka Daka: Female kitsune sorcerer, played by Ziggy. The final character to join the party, she was unceremoniously ejected from the spiritual shogi board at the pearl merchant's house in Book Five. Did what all sorcerers do and went full evocation magic. Once refused a good spell simply because it didn't have the word "ray" in its name. Was very hurriedly leveled up to level 14 at the start of the final session. She continued her evocation research after the final battle, devoting herself to making evocation magic more powerful.
And that's everything. So, uh... let's just go out on this.
Pan Li: Male vanara weaponmaster monk/fighter, played by Cory. Best friend of Sandru, who sadly got no real character development beyond being driven to madness by Pan Li constantly renaming the caravan. Made Qi fall in love with him thanks to an Elixir of Love. Tripped every thrice-damned thing he fought with Perfect Strike, Greater Trip, Vicious Stomp, and Combat Reflexes. Loved the character, hated his combat efficiency. The other character to survive from Brinewall to la finale semi-grande. Ripped Renshii's bracelet from her unconscious body, proposed to Qi with it, so now he and Jai-Li are siblings-in-law. Started a trip-fu monastery in the Forest of Spirits.
Not creepy at all...
Some interesting deaths here, what surprises me is so far I've not seen a TPK from a group of smart adventurers knowing a castle always has a secret way out and accidentally starting their brinewall battlers at lvl3 against Nindinzego.
My group did that and nearly TPKed particularly because the Pharasmin dusk druid wanted them to listen to the image of Pharasma. It took the help of Spivey, who was following them, and a very well-timed triggering of Nin's fear of death in his tactics line, and it was still a really close call. As it turns out, no one died.
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Some interesting deaths here, what surprises me is so far I've not seen a TPK from a group of smart adventurers knowing a castle always has a secret way out and accidentally starting their brinewall battlers at lvl3 against Nindinzego.My group did that and nearly TPKed particularly because the Pharasmin dusk druid wanted them to listen to the image of Pharasma. It took the help of Spivey, who was following them, and a very well-timed triggering of Nin's fear of death in his tactics line, and it was still a really close call. As it turns out, no one died.
It was a close run thing in my game. Death was only averted because while nobody brought in weapons, the ninja did have a feather token that I had dropped in as treasure from a sidequest which impaled Nindenzego when he activated it.
Good times.
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Some interesting deaths here, what surprises me is so far I've not seen a TPK from a group of smart adventurers knowing a castle always has a secret way out and accidentally starting their brinewall battlers at lvl3 against Nindinzego.My group did that and nearly TPKed particularly because the Pharasmin dusk druid wanted them to listen to the image of Pharasma. It took the help of Spivey, who was following them, and a very well-timed triggering of Nin's fear of death in his tactics line, and it was still a really close call. As it turns out, no one died.
Oh, they nearly all died there for me as well. Only the paladins smite evil got them trough. In the end four party members were down into the negatives and the paladin was left standing, with 5hp left.
Really close call! Luckily for them the paladin was also the one carrying the cure light wand.
Name: Ilvaria Duskrin
Race/Class: Drow Paladin of Iomedae 12
Origin: The Darklands
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Enganoka
Cause of death: Self Sacrifice to an assassination attempt
Kaibuninsho got in one last kill before meeting his end, though not the one he was anticipating. After trying to kill the cleric and failing, he used his mislead power and got the drop on the summoner. He failed his fortitude save, and was going to die, but Ilvaria used the Paladin's Sacrifice spell to take the effects herself. She didn't stay dead long, seeing as the party had a fully charged amatatsu seal on hand, but it still was very noble.
Late to to the party (ha!):
Name: Zestia
Race/Class: Human Ranger 9
Origin: Magnidar
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: between the Spire and the way under the mountain
Cause of Death: Very accurate rocks
It took a random ambush by some frost giants to finally kill someone in the party. They've had a few close calls and Koya was killed when a frost worm attacked (and raised by the Seal) but they're a well-built party led by a very smart player using a wizard. Also, all of the PCs are some flavor of neutral, which has been nerfing most of the evil-based spells. It took odds being defied - out of six rocks thrown with random determination as to target, three found the ranger - all of them crits. She'd been a terror all along, helped by Suishan's ability to protect from cold, but she was out of this fight in two rounds. The others immediately started debating what to do - they were afraid to use the Seal again because they thought the herd of undead that started chasing them had been sent by the 5 Storms homing in on the artifact - but my dice, already red hot, determined that Ameiko grabbed the body, used her cloak to DimDoor back to the caravan, and used the Seal before they could stop her.
The ensuing oni sent to deal with them showed me how much I hate the spell Icy Prison :p
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Name: Wolcanus Prognatus
Race/Class: Human Wizard 11
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Shosaito's Last Stand
Cause of death: A low Strength score and a Greater Shadow.
After Jiro gave them the leads, my group decided to go to Sakkakabe first and save O-Sayumi. They got through everything and faced down Shosaito. The wizard himself wasn't all that tough for them, but the Advanced Greater Shadows sure seemed to do the trick!
Wolcanis was hiding in a Rope Trick, and popped out to fire off a Dazing Magic Missile. (Note: Dazing Magic Missiles can suck it. I loathe that spell.) The Shadows were right there, so one of them slid on over and reached out to touch someone. Like a Wizard who didn't go back and hide in his Rope Trick. Touch AC on a Wizard is not hard to achieve with these Shadows, so all I had to do was roll some Strength drain and.....7 off Wolcanus's Strength of 6. He was dead before he hit the ground...to turn into another Shadow.
Shadow Wolcanus was obliterated by a couple of Searing Lights from his old friends, so I guess then...
Name: Shadow Wolcanus
Race/Class: Greater Shadow
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Floating over regular Wolcanus's corpse
Cause of death: Double Searing Light from his pals Avengard and Teme'reh
Hehehehehe...Double kill! >:)
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Name: Shadow M'Ninga
Race/Class: Human Samurai/Barbarian
Origin: M'Wangi
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Necropolis
Cause of death: Death from his frostfallen master.
M'Ninga the young former slave was trained by Master Zotiochi who had also fallen earlier to a foul half-troll necromancer in the first attempt to restore the Jade Throne (1st attempt to run this AP). Having heard that his master had been corrupted by the influence of the oni, he accompanied the caravan with the goal of laying his fallen master to rest. Yet when the chance to confront him came, he was attacked from several sides as the party flanks collapsed. His master ultimately killed the student.
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Name: Chispa
Race/Class: Human Flame Oracle 6
Origin: Sandpoint
Adventure: The Baleful Coven plug-in
Location: The Dreamrealm of Vengeful Reckoning
Cause of Death: 3 Arctic harpspiders
Chispa fell in platonic love with Shalelu after the elven ranger saved her from the fire that claimed her Chispa's family home and little sister. So, when she heard Shalelu was leaving Sandpoint, she naturally wanted to come along.
Months later and Chispa is a powerful flame oracle who had just finished destroying the webbed home of three arctic harpspiders. They leapt from the the trees and converged on Chispa who had strode ahead of her party. Three venomed bites and one critical hit later, Chispa went from full health to a shocking -16 hp. Didn't even have to roll a Fort save for the poison.
Luckily, the Amatatsu Seal can cast resurrection once per month, so like a phoenix from the ashes....
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Name: Avengard E'lleril
Race/Class: Elven Cleric of Desna 11
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Halfway to Shuryo Onsen
Cause of death: Kaibuninsho
After hearing about the assassin on their trail, the group looked for every possible method of not traveling by land. Unfortunately, one of the party is a Monk with Vow of Celibacy and he cannot be touched "in a friendly manner" at all, lest he lose all of his Ki (insert sexy jokes here). This leaves very very few options. After checking the market in Enganoka for Metamagic Rods with no luck, they set out on foot.
Kaibuninsho picked up their trail on their journey to kill Sennaka at Shuryo Onsen, and waited until nightfall to strike. They set up double watches, and I determined randomly which watch the assassination attempt would take place, and on which person. 3rd watch, Avengard and Yumi (Paladin of Desna, and new character joining the group since Wolcanus got Shadowfied--see my post above) were up. Perception checks were not high enough, so Kaibuninsho was able to sneak into place and toss a shuriken at Avengard's neck. Avengard rolled one under the DC for the assassination. But he had Desna's luck on his side, and could roll a failed D20 roll a second time! He rolled one less than the first time. Avengard fell to the ground and started growing a puddle of blood underneath him. Kaibuninsho was out of there before the group had even woken up completely.
Ameiko is safe back at Seinaru Hekiko, and the Amatatsu Seal will be able to bring Avengard back...but man oh man, this ninja assassin dude is freaking out the players at my table something fierce!
Name: Squawk
Race: Tengu
Classes/levels: Ranger 3
Adventure: Brinewall Legacy
Location: Dungeons of Brinewall
Catalyst: Bad tactics. Bad luck
The Gory Details: The party started fighting the BBEG, Squawk the brave Tengu glided out of the crypts into the cavern moving too far away from the party cleric. BBEG shot his Wand of Scorching Ray and critical hit the poor Tengu instantly cooking the bird.
Name: Adressi
Race: Tiefling
Classes/levels: Slayer 3
Adventure: Brinewall Legacy
Location: Dungeons of Brinewall
Catalyst: Bad tactics.
The Gory Details: Adressi facing the Orge guard in the dungeons of Brinewall bravely tried to tumble by the Orge prison guard but failed to avoid his big old club, but brave Adressi continued into a flanking location. The big old Ogre doesn't like people standing behind him so he swung again and tuned poor Adressi into a pile of pulp instantly killing him.
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After moving from my dingy old apartment to a nice new shiny apartment, I can now settle down a bit and catch up on some obituary reading (man, that's morbid) as well as post one that happened about three weeks ago...I think. Anyhoo.
Name: Yumi Steelarm
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Paladin of Desna 10 (At the time. Like I said, this was a while ago)
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: On the road back from Shuryo Onsen
Catalyst: The Shinobi Fuhonsen
The Gory Details: After killing Kaibuninsho, the party's Barbarian, Xankas, grabbed the coin off the body (they had been approached by the Black Lotus ninja clan about it, and about the clan's intense interest in it) Xankas failed his Will save, and since his alignment is CN, it was a short journey for the coin to turn him Chaotic Evil.
That sound you just heard was me tossing the AP over my shoulder for the night.
Xankas made sure to stay up on a watch with Yumi, the Paladin who can detect evil at will and who has done so numerous times. Xankas jumped Yumi from behind, and with a raging full attack with a keened Falchion and Boots of Haste, it didn't take long for the very surprised Paladin (who, if I recall correctly, still tried to reason with Xankas after being attacked) to fall.
The Amatatsu Seal still needed to be used on a still-dead Avengard (see my previous post), so after a whole bunch of tense roleplay with just playing referee when a die roll came up between players, the coin was disposed of...but not into an Imperial Dragon's gullet, so...unbeknownst to them, but knownst to us, the Shinobi Fuhonsen moved on to ruin some other poor sod's life, and Yumi was raised with funds collected by the group to buy a scroll of Raise Dead.
Or maybe it was Resurrection. Like I said, this was a while ago. I really need to catch up on stuff.
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An NPC has taken a dirt nap for the first time in my campaign.
Name: Koya Mvashti
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cleric of Desna 10
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Mikado Cemetery on the Imperial Shrine
Catalyst: Really angry Shadows
The Gory Details: I killed an old woman who just wanted to see the sights. Desna forgive me, I'm a monster. :D
My group was almost to the tombstone shaped island when they got jumped by the Shadows there (who I had hissing and cursing about 'false Emperors' and 'injustice'). They got a couple of people but I rolled pretty low for the Strength Damage. That is, until Koya. I took 7 off her Strength of 5. Instant dead NPC. This was almost an exact repeat of how I killed a PC in the Shadow Maze back in Sakakabe.
Shadows man. They're harsh.
I thought when Str or Dex are reduced to 0 you become helpless not dead, it is loosing all your Con that kills you. (unless of course I am remembering the wrong rule set, it happens)An NPC has taken a dirt nap for the first time in my campaign.
Name: Koya Mvashti
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cleric of Desna 10
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Mikado Cemetery on the Imperial Shrine
Catalyst: Really angry Shadows
The Gory Details: I killed an old woman who just wanted to see the sights. Desna forgive me, I'm a monster. :DMy group was almost to the tombstone shaped island when they got jumped by the Shadows there (who I had hissing and cursing about 'false Emperors' and 'injustice'). They got a couple of people but I rolled pretty low for the Strength Damage. That is, until Koya. I took 7 off her Strength of 5. Instant dead NPC. This was almost an exact repeat of how I killed a PC in the Shadow Maze back in Sakakabe.
Shadows man. They're harsh.
You're remembering the correct rule set; shadows are just an explicit exception:
Core Rulebook: If the amount of ability damage you have taken equals or exceeds your ability score, you immediately fall unconscious until the damage is less than your ability score. The only exception to this is your Constitution score. If the damage to your Constitution is equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you die.
Bestiary entry on Shadows, overruling the general case:
Strength Damage (Su) A shadow's touch deals 1d6 points of Strength damage to a living creature. This is a negative energy effect. A creature dies if this Strength damage equals or exceeds its actual Strength score.
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Indeed. When this happened the first time (it's happened twice during this campaign. Twice! Shadows are our group's Kryptonite, I swear) I double and triple checked the rule before the fight, knowing full well that I could off a PC in one or two swipes.
I didn't even think of it at Mikado Cemetery until it became the Shadow's turn and Koya was only a 5 foot steep away. Then my evil GM senses took over. :-D
Name: Adawulf Vhiski
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Sacred Slayer of Shizuru 7
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Path of Agan-hei
Catalyst: A startled Kimandatsu
The Gory Details: Kimandatsu, who had escaped from Ravenscraeg in the previous volume, attacked the caravan. The Sacred Slayer, who was wielding Suishen, Air Walked to her, crit and half-healthed her. He was suddenly no longer a nuisance but a threat, so she switched to her tetsubo, and summarily crit him back, taking him from 60% health to -20. x4 hurts. What followed was an epic scramble as my foo lion managed to hold a grapple on her long enough for a hound archon to take up Suishen and attack, critting her yet again and taking her down before she could fly away.
One of the most memorable encounters I've ever experienced.
Name: Ilvaria Duskrin (again...)
Race/Class: Drow Paladin of Iomedae 13
Origin: The Darklands
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Cause of death: A couple of angry devils
So Ilvaria and Ameiko got a council with Maemi, being the only women in the party, and Maemi offered her blessing, her servitude, and knowledge of the other well inhabitants if they killed Sokai and helped her leave the well. Ilvaria, being a Paladin, decided to stand up to these evil creatures and refused their offer. Maemi and her consorts did not take kindly to that. A few crits later (plus a searing light to the face, not good to a drow) and Ilvaria was back in line to be judged by Pharasma. The group left the well shortly thereafter and Onoko is more than willing to raise dead, so she's back in business without using a charge on the seal.
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Name: Zarine Lambert
Race/Class: Kitsune Oracle (Heavens)
Adventure: Tide of Honour
Location: Streets of Enganoka
Catalyst: "This Plot Twist Card will speed things up!"
As the party strolled out from their meeting with the Three Monkeys, casually counting their gold pieces and wondering when they'd encounter Kaibuninsho, Zarine's player had a clever thought. "Hey, you know how we can catch this Kaibuninsho guy right away? I'll play this Plot Twist Card I drew this session. 'Not As It Seems: An empty street conceals assassins!'"
Well, if you insist. Start the combat music, because Kaibuninsho is right behind you. One full attack was all it took. Kaibuninsho was killed on the run, with Zarine's severed head in-hand. The party didn't hesitate to double back to the Three Monkeys, proudly proclaiming the quest complete. The minor matter of Zarine's death was resolved a few days later by a drunken faux-Shinto priest and some very expensive gems.
Name: Zarine Lambert
Race/Class: Kitsune Oracle (Heavens)
Adventure: Tide of Honour
Location: Shadow Maze
Catalyst: "You call that a CR 8 trap? I'll give them a CR 8 trap..."
By the book, the shadow mirrors in Shinju no Ie cast shadow evocation when you shine light on them. I knew immediately that this was too lame for me to leave alone. If I used a trap that dealt only 5d4+5 damage (20% that with a DC 22 Will save!), my players, all seasoned powergamers, would make fun of me for softballing. So I traded all those weaksauce effects for serious threats, like circle of death, maximized enervation, and phantasmal killer.
That last one was the only trap they actually stumbled into. In the corridors of the Shadow Maze, they heard the voice of a woman, and the burbling of a newborn.
"Inainai... baa"
Three PCs turned the corner to investigate. There, in the looking glass, was a woman playing a game of peek-a-boo with baby Momo-chan. The image was too dark to see much detail; was that O-Sayumi's birth mother, or her stepmother, Tarukimi?
"Inainai... baa"
They inched closer, bringing their light directly to the mirror to get a better look.
"Inainai..."
And then they burned another diamond on Zarine.
Name: Koman Vhiski
Race/Class: Human Slayer
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Spear-shaker Point
Catalyst: Learning to kayak in crab-infested waters
While getting their kayaking lessons, the group was set upon by the giant shark-eating crab. Koman stepped forward to meet it, the plan being for him to go total defense and keep it occupied, while the ranged combatants in the group took it out. A sound plan except for the two nat 20's rolled by the crab, followed by a grab/constrict. Dead, dead.
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Character Name: Avery Elindiir
Race/Class: Female Elf Rakshasa Blooded Sorcerer
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Giant Downs
Catalyst: Listening to bad advice, ignoring major warnings, falling for a medusa head trap.
Gruesome Details:
Finding a trap she tied a rope to the door and tried pulling it open at a distance. It didn't help. Opening the trap caused a severed medusa head to drop from the ceiling. Avery turned to stone immediately thanks to a failed Fort save. Her allies eventually tracked her and returned her statue body to the caravan.
Name: Kelda Oxgutter
Race/Class: Human Barbarian
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Snorri Stone-Eye's funeral barge
Catalyst: Not knowing when to retreat
In a heated battle against Snorri Stone-Eye in the cramped hold of his funeral barge, Kelda charged in headlong and raging. She took some punishing blows from the undead captain, and attempted to withdraw and regroup, but she was too late. An AOO as she retreated took her down.
Name: Yannus Vhiski
Race/Class: Human Cleric (Evangelist)
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Ravenscraeg Great Hall
Catalyst: Hero support in the face of overwhelming odds
In the initial foray into Ravenscraeg, the party was faced with ninjas, swarms of ravens, and a horde of thugs led by a werebear. Yannus, while trying to stem the tide, was dealt a critical blow by an axe-wielding Ulfen
My party were travelling towards Ravenscraig while still 4th. So I made the journey more difficult by adding a Glacial Toad, the idea was to get them to 5th. It was doing ok, the oracle move within its reach to get into the right position to cast a spell. Unfortunately it criticalled the Oracle and killed her outright (rolled lousy hit point)
The player decided he did not want to be raised so has rolled up a War Priest.
Name: Koya Mvashti
Race/Class: Human Cleric of Desna
Adventure: Forest of Spirits (The Ruby Phoenix Tournament)
Location: The Ruby Phoenix Tournament, semi-finals
Catalyst: Underestimating SEISHUKU! (also, re-build and buff overload on selfsame SEISHUKU! via GM)
The party, consisting of Koya (as a PC), a male Witch with melee aspirations, a Sohei Monk with a Naginata and a Magician Bard with lots of wands, is in the semi-final of the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. Having thoroughly trounced all opposition in the preceding rounds, they expected SEISHUKU!, the yellow Ninja with the NINJA! headband (much more Alchemist, afer a through rebuild), who was shooed in as a replacement for the disqualified opposition team into this semi-final, to be just a nuisance.
SEISHUKU!, who had been rebuilt from being an Alchemist 4, Ninja 8 into an Alchemist 11, Ninja 2, was buffed to all hell and, after throwing a stink bomb at the group in the first round, bombed Koya down from full HP to dead in one round with 93 fire damage. Also set her corpse on fire.
After a chagrined GM tuned down SEISHUKU! on the fly, to prevent the death of the rest of the shocked party, he was vanquished after, ahem, getting overconfident in his victory. He left the battlefield with his head held high.
Koya got reincarnated into a pretty half-orc and gained two negative levels, but a total of +3 to all her physical attributes. Not that much of a bad deal, after all.
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I must add three nameless goblins to this page. Three poor, sadistic Licktoad goblins who sadly passed away in spectacularly inept fashion.
Imagine ye this:
A room, fifteen feet by fifteen feet, occupied by three angry goblins, one of whom was armed with a rocket, and all three of them carrying dogslicers.
Enter, stage left, a gnome and his talking chicken. The gnome is the group's easily-embarrassed shaman, who didn't think quickly enough and opened a door in the Licktoad-village without sufficient backup nearby. Ergo, one gnome is now facing three goblins.
One of whom is armed with a rocket. This is important.
The goblin with the aforementioned boomboom lights it up and points it at the shocked gnome in the doorway, whose chicken scurries to get out of the way since it's got no great wish to be turned into chicken a' la goblin. However, the rocket has a 1 round firing delay. So, while he is waiting for the fuse to burn down, his mate, swinging his dogslicer, runs up to the doorway, wanting to be a great goblin hero, by cutting down the terrible enemy in front of him.
He promptly rolls a 1 on his attack roll.
The dogslicer imbeds itself in the crossbeam over the door, and the handle snaps off. The goblin in the doorway is now totally disarmed, confused and he's got a friend pointing a rocket with a rapidly burning fuse at his back.
The third goblin in the room, realizing what is about to happen, breaks down in hysterical giggles at the impending splatter.
Next turn, the gnome regains his faculties and understanding what's about to happen, ducks sideways to get cover behind one of the wickerwork-and-goblin-poo walls in the hallway beyond.
The rocket then goes off. The goblin holding onto it, doesn't know he's supposed to let go, so he gets scorched by the exhaust flame before finally losing his grip.
He then rolls a nat-20 on the attack roll.
He confirms the crit.
Moments later, the gnome in the hallway beyond, finds himself covered in wickerwork-and-goblin-poo wall, which he bravely holds up, doing his best Hulk-impersonation, to prevent his talking chicken from getting squashed, all the while all three goblins in the room have ceased to exist.
Not even enough of them remained that the group were able to gather up their ears for a reward back in Sandpoint.
To make matters even more hilarious, the group's catfolk rogue just came around the corner in time to see the explosion, and immediately believed that the gnome was the responsible party.
The gnome is now officially the coolest thing since catnip in that catfolk's world.
So yes, I want to add three nameless goblins, who provided enormous hilarity with their extremely gory deaths.
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Name: Jethro
Race/Class: Human monk lvl 4
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Snorri's funeral boat
Catalyst: Undead Snorri
After leaving Asvig Longthews house on fire and all his men murdered, the party split up... They had managed to get the information from Helva that Ulf would soon be with Snorri.
After observing the funeral boat and practising with the kayaks, they nearly got killed by the crab, only surviving by heroically running away.
After purchasing a yak to feed to the crab, and one kayak down, it was decided that two of the party members would remain on shore. One of them would go back into town to cover for the party, the other stayed on the beach to make sure it was safe.
So, the Rogue3/alchemist1, lvl 4 sorceress and lvl 4 monk infiltrated the boat (they did stellar on the rolls for piloting the kayaks, I was afraid they would all drown).
In the hold, the narrow confines soon got to them. Convinced Ulf had to be at the back in the mist, the sorceress went exploring, while the monk and rogue fought snorri.
A couple of greataxe hits and the monk looked bad. A level drain and again a hit of the axe, and he went from positives to death.
Not wanting to kill half the party, I did not sick the ninjas on them.
Lesson of the week: Do not dump con.
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Name: Jared
Race/Class: Half-elf unchained rogue 4/alchemist 3
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Tunuak's Bore
Catalyst: Tunuak
The party was doing pretty fine fighting their way down against the hoarfrost spirits and the possesed hunter. But the double difficult terrain of the icy ramp made for slow going.
Tunuak did not have a lot of offensive spells, and used most helping out his melee minions.
The Rogue was badly wounded by the time he reached the bottom together with the Druid. Instead of holding back, he opted to press on. Too bad for him, Tunuak has been holding back on his Unholy Blight. Rogue did not make his save and got full damage, which took him from badly wounded to completely dead.
He got reincarnated as a half-orc later, which hilariously suited his personality a lot more then half-elf.
level 4, partys witch, wizard, and bard
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: on shore to go to Snorri's funeral boat
Catalyst: shark eating crab
as the party was getting ready to to to the funeral boat the crab came out of the water and snapped one of the boats in half, part won initiative and crab only beat wizard, bard tried to make a friend by casting cure and touching it. witch hit it with a ranged spell for some damage, ninja moved around invisible to flank it. crab went and got a critical on witch adding constrict damage she died right then, then attacked bard and got a crit once more bard player was watching the die roll and said it was a crit. that attack took the bard to negative hp and grabbed. wizard took a withdraw action to get away. turn 2 ninja just stayed invisible as it had taken out two party members with one attack each. crab charged wizard and hit and killed him with normal damage, then crab kept up the grab on bard and did constrict and killed bard. ninja grabbed witch's body and hid till the crab left then used the seal to bring her back.
ten mins latter part was back up with the help of a long running npc that just likes the party, using salve of second chances.
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Character Name: Ungrul
Race/Class: Ranger/Sorcerer (Wildblooded) 1/6
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Hunting the Dragon
Catalyst: Ungrul tempted the ire of a dragon with a munchkin'd corrosive touch
First Ungrul. Very close to Koya and the caravan keeper Ungrul had been with the party since the very first days. After initially facing the dragon near Iqaliat and having it retreat the group opted to have the caravan set up a base camp and acclimate to the altitude, train a few wooly rhinos and roam the region hunting the dragon.
After a month the group narrowed it's hiding place to a cave on a small mountain of ice. The group infiltrated the cave after noting it's return. They entered with the dragon in hiding under the ice.
It leaped from the ice and chose to focus it's attacks on the low-armor sorcerer. After one full round of attacks the sorcerer went down.
Unfortunately within the first round the shaman channeled to heal and brought the sorcerer back to 2 or 3 hp.
The dragon was not interested in the prone and threatened sorcerer but the same couldn't be said for Ungrul himself.
Using a combination of class abilities he used a super charged corrosive touch to melt away more than half of the dragon's remaining hp.
Even then the dragon chose to only spare a power attacked tail whip for the downed sorcerer. The attack snapped the sorcerer in half leaving him fully dead.
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Character Name: Dain, Nobumasa, Johanna, Asahi (A Near TPK)
Race/Class: Druid 7, Samurai (Yojimbo) 7, Shaman 7, Unchained Ninja (3pp) 7
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: The Glacial Bore
Catalyst: The party were killed due to mistakes numbering three: One by the Players, One by the DM, and One by Both
After killing the dragon and finding clues that someone had raised the ire of the creature the group returned to their just rewards. They rightly suspected the machinations of Tunuuak after his greeting during their initial arrival.
Having sent Sandru to follow the oracle earlier and sussing out the location of his hiding spot the group headed down into the glacial bore to find him. Encountering Naquun the group initially blindly trusted the traitorous ranger.
The samurai opened the secret door to the glacial bore with the phrase, "Did anyone roll sense motive on that guy?"
The shaman rolled in time for the enemy ranger to pull his axes and start chopping into her from behind.
At this point a number of crucial mistakes are made and I'll break down the encounter into critical moments:
1.) Rather than face the ranger the samurai and the fighter (the only character who will survive) either use their claws of the ice bear or simply face roll down the levels to the bottom of the bore to face the oracle. Splitting the group and having no knowledge of the hoarfrost spirits.
2.) The hoarfrost spirits rush out to start throwing cones of cold and attacks at the druid and his animal companion who are holding them off while the shaman and the ninja attempt to deal with the ranger.
3.) The druid ignores the hoarfrost spirits and flies past them as a giant hawk to help the fighter and the samurai who are now being harassed by the oracle (who is flying and invisible), his spiritual allies, and spiritual weapons. The druid gets clawed by one of the hoarfrost spirits on his way by, fails his save and nosedives 60 feet into the ice below taking a large amount of damage.
4.) The samurai and the fighter spend a LARGE number of rounds simply swinging on spiritual allies because they 'wouldn't know' that they couldn't be damaged.
5.) The DM assumes that oracles use their charisma bonus to modify spiritual allies and spiritual weapons making them considerably more powerful than they should be.
6.) The druid's animal companion dies allowing the hoarfrost spirits who remain to rush in and start tearing into the shaman and the ninja.
7.) The shaman and ninja are ultimately cut down and coup de graced.
8.) The druid tries to fly the fighter around to get him in range of the oracle when his invisibility wears off. The druid is cut down by a jumping hoarfrost spirit leaping from the upper level, goes into negatives and dies when he impacts the ground.
9.) The samurai, near death himself, curses Suishen (basically me) for not reminding him that the weapon can both cast Air Walk and See Invisiblity.
10.) The samurai is cut down by one of the hoarfrost spirits (the same who killed the druid).
11.) At this point the fighter picks up Suishen, casts air walk and spends the next three to four rounds flying around the room pressuring the oracle as he is chased by spiritual allies and kills him before dragging his dead friends back up to the village.
And that was the near TPK.
PS: The real tragedy was the death of the ninja who was ungrul's players new character and only last the course of one combat.