Oh, okay. Mikazes character seems to be in kind of a tight spot in regards to the right thing to do, so it would have seemed even worse if the group was having a hard time dealing with the dungeon.
Mind you, I am not feeling that sorry for this other group, I personally really dislike if groups constantly try to circumvent entire dungeons and teleport-frag the bosses. :p
Oh, okay. Mikazes character seems to be in kind of a tight spot in regards to the right thing to do, so it would have seemed even worse if the group was having a hard time dealing with the dungeon.
Mind you, I am not feeling that sorry for this other group, I personally really dislike if groups constantly try to circumvent entire dungeons and teleport-frag the bosses. :p
Hah, they are all new players for the most part. They don't have a 'box' to think outside of yet so they definitely don't approach these things like ye-old grognadian D&D players. I assure you there was no real meta thoughts behind what they were doing and they had plenty of reinforcement to try it.
Their idea was legitimate, the Kami cannot enter the tower until all the Oni are dead, so their idea was to kill the Oni, then help the Kami with the hobgoblins in a sort-of pincer attack style thing, so I'm not bothered by the attempted 'bypass' of encounters. There is a very real reason for them to try it and, I reward experience for bypassing encounters as well as facing them down head on, it's just a choice of playstyle I think.
Of course they have every right to use whatever tactics you deem acceptable. ;) I just wanted to say that I personally am not a fan of bypassing the adventure. But their idea to root out the Oni is a good one. The Kami could probably mop up the whole rest of the dungeon just by sending in that one Torii guardian. ^^
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NAME: Enzo Vhiski
CLASS/RACE/ETC: Human samurai 3 / rogue 5
KILLER: Yeti Savages (JR3)
CAUSE: A GM whose average roll on attacks was in the neighborhood of 15. (That's not an exaggeration.) In other words, rends. Lots of rends. And a few crits.
AFTERMATH: Returned to life. Still saddled with a negative level for a week.
Next session: Into the Forest of Spirits!
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Name: Pirik S'lalonge (and I probably just butchered the spelling of his last name, but screw it, it's 2:30AM and I don't have it on-hand)
Race/Class: Halfling (Words of Power) Sorcerer
Cause of Death: Munasukaru
What Happened: A critically-hitting vital strike from a weapon with a x4 crit multiplier being used against a low-hp Sorcerer happened.
Pirik had about 3 different abilities with the potential to negate crits. They all failed now, once he finally truly needed them. He also had an ally with Breath of Life (and by my math, the average amount healed by that Breath of Life would've saved him) who of course rolled a series of 1s and 2s for the spell's healing. The result was far below-average and Pirik stayed dead.
Name: Thorleif
Class: Barbarian 5
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Funeral Ship
Between a surprisingly high AC for a barbarian and the fact that he's consistently one-shoting the ninja with power attacks, he and the witch pretty well have the situation in hand, but a few really unlucky rolls eventually leave him at 1 HP, with a lone remaining ninja in his face and spreading flames all around him when the first character pops up from below- His cousin the sorcerer.
Now, our barbarian here, as it happens, was in initiative next, before both the ninja and spreading flames, and would have made it through if left to his own devices, but wanting to help out, the sorcer made the honestly quite clever move of casting pyrotechnics to extinguish the fire... which had the unfortunate side effect of blinding both the barbarian and witch, but leaving the ninja unaffected.
So, barbarian blindly swings with what would have been a killing blow if not for the miss chance. The ninja whose flanking partner just went up in flames gets one last shot, hits, doesn't do too much damage, but after losing his rage boost, he's down to around -16. But then we all remember that being blind leaves him vulnerable to that extra little bit of sneak attack damage... and tada. Dead as a result of family trying to save him.
I was pretty impressed.
Character Name: Toshiro Kurosawa ( Fighter 1/Wizard 5/ Eldritch Knight 5 )
Adventure: The Ruby Phoenix Tournament ( Interlude to replace Munasukarus Penance )
Location: The last exhibition match
Catalyst: Standing in front of an Atamahuta without much of a plan and no defensive magic deployed
What happened:
The last exhibition match before the finale was underway, and the party faced a lowly Ettin. Well, not really an Ettin, but a shapechanged Atamahuta. Sadly for the party, none of the players bought a clue and tried to find out what was wrong with that scenario, although they did manage to see that Kiang Zheng, the Earth Yai bound into service to the tournament, showed an unusual interest in this fight. Still, nobody made any connection.
The match began and after Toshiro and Chidori, one of the two party Ninjas, had made their move, the rest of the party was trapped in a very well rolled Black Tentacles spell ( CMB 16 + rolled 18 = vs. CMD 34 ). This occupied the party for the next 1 1/2 rounds, until Kazumi Kaijitsu, the party bard, managed to make her concentration check and dispel the magical effect.
By this point, however, Chidori and Toshiro had engaged the Atamahuta in close combat. Chidori went down in the first round, yet still found herself alive, albeit at negative hitpoints. In the second round, when the Black Tentacles went down, Falk, the archer fighter, began hammering down the hitpoints of the Atamahuta, although about 40 points of damage per round remained stuck in the Stoneskin spell it had running. Toshiro was the next to go. The Atamahuta critted him right down to -40 HP with his third attack, yet Toshiro spent two hero points to stabilize at -1 HP. Dario Nevara, the partys priest of Saranrae, revived him with a channel energy and Toshiro took up Suishen and tried to stand up... which of course triggered an attack of opportunity, dropping him straight down to -18 HP, killing him again, for real this time.
He subsequently was returned from the dead in the same round via Breath of Life and the Atamahuta went down under the constant barrage of arrows from Falk... but I hope this time the player finally learned his lesson about standing in front of giant creatures when they are about to full attack. His last character was Akira, the Samurai.
Oh, and in the session last week, Falk got hit by Hok Fun the Eunuch with a Confusion spell and critted Dario from full 63 HP to -17 HP ( dead ) with one arrow. But Dario spent his two hero points and is fine, so it didn't seem worth an obituary. ^^
Every TCD is obit-worthy!! ^___^
Oh, there were a lot of lulz around the table, especially since the player currently is vacationing in the US. But since hero points saved the day, I thought a proper write-up wouldn't be necessary. This double-death action here could not be contained, though ^^
Character Name: Manou Vhiski
Class/Race: Female human hedge witch 5
Adventure: Night of the Frozen Shadows
Location: In the streets of Kalsgard
Catalyst: Hekja
After a longer discussion what exactly to do at Snorri's funeral, the witch went to town to fetch Spivy for a special reconnaissance mission.
Nothing special, actually...
But fate intervened in the form of Hekja lurking on one of the rooftops in Kalsgard. The witch didn't notice her and Hekja's arrow hit for a critical. The poor witch never knew what hit her...
By spending hero points not to die, Manou was found rescued and healed in a shrine to Shelyn by her anxious fellows, where I had the opportunity to introduce Yin-Po.
That giant water bug is pretty deadly, all things considered. ^^
It was significantly less deadly when launched via catapult, as ordered by Kikonu when my players turned the module into the enemies assault on the gatehouse rather than their assault on the castle.
Sirona: level 12 dual-cursed life oracle.
Chosen (at random) as a target for Yugureda Shosaito's Finger of Death. Rolled a 1 on the saving throw. Fortunately, had the ability to reroll a d20 once per day. Unfortunately, had already used it.
Character: Nakitu - Kitsune Evangelist Cleric 1
Who-done-it: Volorog, the undersized faceless stalker.
What happened: An unfortunate critical on the very first round of combat with our VERY squishy cleric being the recipient of the surprise attack after he was kind enough to heal the lecherous thing.
I feel like I've failed as a GM today T_T
Read it here.
Character: Nakitu - Kitsune Evangelist Cleric 1
Who-done-it: Volorog, the undersized faceless stalker.
What happened: An unfortunate critical on the very first round of combat with our VERY squishy cleric being the recipient of the surprise attack after he was kind enough to heal the lecherous thing.I feel like I've failed as a GM today T_T
Read it here.
You did not fail as a GM, it just that the cleric was an unlucky target of misfortune.
Character Name: Alban Athansius
Race/Class: Human Gunslinger (Musket Master 14)
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Well of Demons
Catalyst: Finger of Death
A newly assembled party of adventurers assembled to try and figure out what happened in the well of demons. After finding the remains of the last group and recovering the seal, the group wandered down towards Shojinawa Ito’s domain. The battle was pitched and Alban was clearly the greatest threat, so Ito extinguished him with a finger of death. Alban was raised at the end of the fight.
Character Name: Alban Athansius
Race/Class: Human Gunslinger (Musket Master 15)
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Well of Demons
Catalyst: Finger of Death (again)
The day after Alban’s last death, the party descended back into the well. They destroyed Sugimatu Nobinoru and his brood, but were ambushed by Ito again as they ascended to the surface. Alban took another finger of death as the party flew up the waterfall to level 1 and failed the save. His dead body was recovered by the party’s wizard in a desperate blind teleport to the highest point in the well before the dimensional anchor.
Character Names: Koya and Sandru
Race/Class: Human Cleric of Desna 13 and Human Rouge (Swashbuckler) 4 / Fighter (Mobile Fighter) 9
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Jade Throne
Catalyst: Human Bane Mook Squad
The party performed a crisis entry into the palace by flying to the castle, blasting out a 4th floor window, and quickly destroying all the guards on the third and fourth floor. The 5 PCs (human gunslinger, half-elf necromancer, aasimar oracle of winter, aasimar paladin of Shelyn, and Penelope) along with Sandru, Ameiko, Koya, and Shalelu entered the throne room and began the battle. The party focus won initiative and managed to drop Anamarumon low enough to gaseous form on round one. The other baddies got into position according to scrip and called out for backup in the form of the 4 ogre mages from downstairs (upgraded to Typhoon Commanders) at the beginning of round two. The ogre mages rushed to engage and managed to kill both Koya and Sandru with their human bane naginatas.
Character Name: Penelope Spice
Race/Class: Human Ranger (Skirmisher) 15
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Jade Throne
Catalyst: Ikarikurusai to the Face
The party managed to take down the Raven Prince, Jade Regent, and Renshii Meida along with three of the four typhoon commanders (the fourth being magic jar’ed by the party wizard). Anamarumon finally regenerated some health and took a solid form again and started laying waste with whirlwind and eye bolt attacks. Penelope escaped the maze effect to end up 10’ behind Anamarumon and took a vicious attack of opportunity to open up with a rapid shot from her bow. Surrounded by the oracle (who failed her spell resistance check to cast harm on him) and the bow wielding ranger, Anamarumon power attacked, knocking the oracle down to low health on the first attack then critting Penelope on the second to kill her (and drop the oracle with the chain lightning effect) before pounding the wizard’s ogre mage body. Then, to add insult to injury, the wind yai commanded his whirlwind to pick up the wizard’s empty body and carry it through a blade barrier. Though he was killed shortly thereafter, this will live on as the most vicious villain turn in the history of our group.
20 point buy, NO hero points (but they got instated after this event),HP = Max -2 at all levels but first; 5 pcs.
Name: Zaid Cross
Race: Aasimar
class/level: Zen Archer Monk 4
Book: Night of Frozen Shadows (#2)
Location: Kayak Beech
Catalyst: Shark Eating Crab
Zaid was killed in one full attack action after the creature successfully damaged the boat Zaid was on in the surprise round. Claw, Grab, Constrict, Claw, Grab, Constrict for 60(!!) damage. Round one. 34 to -26 like that! The remaining party members fled after they watched the "archer" who just tanked the entirety of Asvig's men (being surrounded for most of the encounter with the enemies failing to hit on 19s) be ripped to shreds nonchalantly by a seafood plate in less than 6 seconds.
Several minutes later, Zaid's mourning friends were shocked to see him drag himself from brine, thanks to the Amatatsu seal.
Mark my words, that crustacean will pay.
I imagine that the crustacean paid with being boiled, then cracked open and eaten in chunks dipped in hot, melted butter. By the entire city.
If not ... scrying. ;)
Hollindaise sauce
Name: Ameiko
Class/level: Aristocrat 1, Rogue 2, Bard 10
Book: 6
Location: Imperial Graveyard
Cause: Greater shadows
Ameiko, rejecting the idea she should retreat, cast mirror image on herself, creating four images. Despite this, she took 11 strength damage and died in just three attacks.
She returned as a shadow two rounds later, and was beaten to death by the PCs.
She was brought back with a very expensive scroll.
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Character Name: Shen Al-Kalid
Race/Class: Human Inquisitor 10
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Festival of the Dragon
Catalyst: Desire to get a flank
To begin with, this is a 7 player party, so I've been buffing all the enemies and making more of them. Most of the group are high dex melee types. The party consists of a Ninja, Oracle/Paladin, Arcane Archer, Cleric, Catfolk Paladin, Magus, and the Inquisitor. The Paladin is a replacement characters from the lands of Tian Xia, the Cleric is an added player from same, the Oracle/Paladin is a replacement character from Kalsguard, and the Arcane Archer is a replacement character from Brinewall. Only the Inquisitor, Ninja, and Magus are left of the original group. The party has the 4 NPCs still alive and Spivey as well. Skygni left with a PC somewhere in the frozen north, and Ulf decided that the party, despite having rescued him from the Ninjas, was more trouble than they were worth and left after arriving at Ordu-Aganhei.
The Prince was smitten by the Cleric of Shizuru and all during the festivals was wining and wooing but the Cleric would have none of it, and refused the Prince's proposal during the fourth festival. The party, rightly afraid of the price by this point, having seen and heard rumor of his forms of 'justice' was slightly paranoid after this and keen to leave the palace.
My buffs for the ninjas were to make the dragon a group of nine ninja level 8s and one ninja 9, using Ki-charged shuriken and nightmare vapor-laden smoke bombs. I was rolling very well during the surprise round for sneak damage and scored well on the initiatives too, getting the party heavily damaged but not quite dead. Shen is a defensive fighter and can get his AC into the mid-30s pretty easily, and tumbled through the ninjas to get a flank...He'd managed to get some healing from the clerics before moving through and attacking, but two party fireballs later and even the limited healing he'd gotten had him below neg con, despite making one of the saves.
This is Shen's second death, having died from a frostfallen mammoth and frostfallen smilodon in the Boreal expanse...
Character Name: Nazrak Gunlao
Race/Class: Samurai (warrior) 14
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Catalyst: The Graveknight
When facing the graveknight on the second level of the Well Nazrak was obvious choice for the knight. Undead monster attacked with all his might against the white samurai and even with magical healing from PC bard and Ameiko, he was left with too few hit points after couple of rounds. Then he hit with all three attacks, making 102 points on damage and killed Nazrak couple of times (he had about 49-65 hp left at that point). As Spivey (their healer in Shrine) was unable to come down to the Well, there was no saving for Nazrak. Other managed to kill graveknight soon after.
Funny thing is that party ninja could have hit graveknight with sneak attacks but thought that samurai would get upset because of his interference.
Nazrak was raised back from dead by Amatatsu Onoko.
Character Name: Kazumi Kaijitsu
Character Name: Dario Nevara (saved by the expenditure of hero points, but dead is dead ^^)
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Shinju-no-Ie cellar
Catalyst: Damage. Lots of damage.
What happened: The party had fought their way through the shadow maze, only catching on to O-Sayumi's clues after they already had triggered four encounters with several incorporeal opponents.
Finally, they made it to Yugureda Shosaito and, ignoring any roleplaying opportunities, decided to bum-rush the man. Although the party is 50% larger than the AP recommends and used a 20-point buy (which often gives them a very arrogant attitude towards their opponents), they apparently were not really in the game today, given how the casters (including Dario, the party healer) spent one and a half rounds trying to dispel the magical defenses Yugureda had prepared when they were loudly romping around in his laboratory. In the case of Dario, that decision to not instead dole out some combat healing proved very costly.
Eschewing the full-round action to summon some underpowered monster against the eight ( Ameiko and Shalelu included ) adventurers who had shown up to rescue O-Sayumi, Yugureda instead went for a combination of quickened and non-quickened damage spells. Given how he had to face so many opponents, I had put two more area effect spells in his arsenal and that proved a bit too much for poor Kazumi and Daario.
While Dario just died once, and so was able to rescue himself with hero points, Kazumi was first frozen to death by a cone of cold to -15 HP and then her corpse was blown up by the following quickened fireball, with her ending up at something like -50 HP.
Yugureda Shosaito succumbed to the Spider Eater poison's paralysis effect, so we'll see what happens next to him. The seal has been used just recently ( when Kaibuninsho assassinated Kazumi... the poor character really had it rough the last weeks ), so it'll take some effort to get her back from the dead. Also, the party is trying to rescue the soul of Yugureda's wife from the Shadow Plane and so far they only know about the possibility of casting Miracle/Wish. I'll give them some clues that her soul is lost on the Shadow Plane, so I guess they might try to save her by going there directly. Could get exciting!
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Name: "Faceman"
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Sorc 10th (Arcane bloodline)
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: House of Withered Blossoms, A9b (point of origin), A8a (point of death)
Catalyst: one chain lightning too many
The Gory Details: The Faceman took two of Akinosa's 12d6 chain lightning secondary bolts too many, resulting in being reduced to -37 hp. A timely breath of life brought the arcanist back from departing to the Boneyard to a total of 2 positive hp.
A very temporary death, but a death nonetheless!
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Name: Talathel Andosana
Race/Class: Elf Fighter 1/Alchemist 12
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Shuryu Onsen
Catalyst: Samurai do ridiculous amounts of single-target damage at high levels
What happened: While the others were fighting a few of the Yamabushi Tengu Typhoon Guard (who had joined with Sikutsu Sennaka to ready an ambush for the PCs when they finally arrived to attack the daimyo himself), Sennaka challenged Talathel to a fight.
The fight had been going on for a while at that point, and everyone had been hurt a bit in one way of the other. Kazuo the Yojimbo had already been taken down with a Finger of Death spell, so there was nobody to convince Sennaka to flee, and so the daimyo kept fighting.
Eventually, a full attack landed multiple hits, including a critical. Talathel was dropped about 51 points below the range of death--killing him more than a breath of life could manage to reverse--and the rest of the party proceeded to kill Sennaka.
Talathel had been turned Chaotic Evil by the Shinobi Fuhonsen, however, so his death saved the party from getting their throats slit in their sleep. Of all the rest of them, the party wizard seemed to have picked up on his new alignment and murderous inclinations most fully, and so while the others spoke of resurrecting him, the wizard disintegrated his corpse.
Ameiko herself, retrained as a Bard 1/Samurai (Sword Saint) 12 by Jiro, will be replacing Talathel as the new fourth PC just in time for the book's final battle, and so we (finally) have no evil remaining in the group!
Heh, yeah. I've myself reworked Ameiko's levels into my own Swashbuckler class, although she has changed into it by more dramatic means (a lone Oni tracking the party from Kalsgard into the icy wastes, a botched Trap the Soul effect due to the gem being flawed and Suishen diminishing itself to repair Ameiko's damaged soul, by infusing her with a part of it which belonged to an Amatatsu from long ago, who had created her own fighting style).
It did go over well enough with my first group, but it just happened last Friday with my second group and they didn't accept it too well, due to concerns that Ameiko may be now another person. Which, by itself, gives me an excellent way to attack Ameiko's personal storyline from another angle. :p
Good to see Glutteny is about to finish JR. Hopefully we can see further adventures of the RoTRL crew. :)
Name: Auskrem
Race/Class: Barbarian 12
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru's Penance
Catalyst: Thundering Blade of House Sugimatu to the chest.
What happened:
This will take a bit of explaining, but my 'Group 1' Jade Regent crew had quite a few rough encounters throughout Munasukaru's Penance and were having some serious trouble finishing off fleeing Oni. This unfortunately ended with a desperate last standoff in the Kimon chamber with Munasukaru, Ichiro, Saburo, Ochiyo, and Rosanjin and 4 Sisters of the Broken Path.
The Party, having retreated on at least 3 different occasion to heal, restock, ect. frequently found themselves being ambushed and nearly routed by more and more coherent counter attacks as the Oni began to realize the threat they faced. Eventually, they were all pushed back to Munasukaru's chamber to plan their final defense of the Penance. To say the least, they fought like cornered rats with the intent to make it as costly to the party as possible if they were going to be killed.
The Party recruited all the major NPC's and Caravan allies to join them in the final showdown, suspecting the end is in sight and not knowing if they had what it takes to deal with the Oni threat alone. They pause at the door to Munasukaru's chamber to begin to cast short term buffs and summon monsters. The Oni hear this and begin their own preparations, and end up opening the door and starting their own assault against the partially buffed group on the second round of combat.
Auskrem is the first to be targeted, wielding Suishen and standing at the front of the pack, he is quickly peppered with ranged attacks from the assembled Oni minus Munasukaru. Some desperate healing from Koya and Spivey keep him in the fight while the group tries their best to begin to gain traction with their assault.
Several rounds of combat in, Auskrem and the NPC's attempted to crowd Munasukaru against a hastily erected Stone Wall to crowd her pole arm fighting style. Their desperate tactic didn't hold out as Munasukaru adjusted her grip and continued her assault, finishing off the wounded Auskrem with a fatal stab to the heart.
Name: Winter Deepearth
Race/Class: Sorcerer 12
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru's Penance
Catalyst: Nodachi Crit followed by Cone of Cold.
What happened:
As the fight climaxed, Munasukaru was felled by a crossbow bolt from the party's Bard, the remaining Oni see their imminent death and inform the party they will make it a spiteful one and turn their attention towards injured and downed allies. Desperately, a mirror imaged Winter navigates through a torrent of attacks of opportunity in order to protect a badly injured Spivey who has just healed the groups downed Magus. The following round Winter takes a critical hit from a Nodachi wielding Ja Noi, dropping him into the negatives only be finished off by an errant cone of cold fired by Ryosanjin attempting to snoop out a Greater Invis'ed Bard with an oni bane crossbow.
The party managed to finish off the remainder of the enemies and avoid any further death while the remainder of the Oni were finished off in a few rounds without further incident.
It was a costly victory!
Ouch. Will the dead party members be raised?
Yeah, they will be back. Seal will pick up one undoubtedly, the other they will find a way to raise on their own. They are still working on logistics of the whole thing between sessions at the moment.
They had a bad stretch of not being able to make it to sessions, so they are getting back into the swing of things again.
Great, wouldn't have wanted Mikaze to lose his character.
Never thought of including the temporary deaths. But with the seal or timely Breath of Life spells, there have been several deceased.
I'm also playing Ruby Phoenix Tournament, but I'll ignore the momentary deaths of those encounters.
Name: Gwyn the Light
Race/Class: Cleric-monk-fighter 9
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Caravan encounter on the High Ice
Catalyst: Swallowed whole by a random remorhaz with extra burning damage.
Name: Gwyn the Light
Race/Class: Female elf cleric-monk-fighter-duelist 10
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Storm Tower
Catalyst: Swallowed again by a remorhaz with extra burning damage.
I left the seal resurrect her. Basically because she was the one carrying it.
Name: Hellena
Race/Class: Female human Fighter 10
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Uqtaal necropolis tunnels
Catalyst: Raging barbarian yeti barbarians.
I wanted to give the characters a bit more challenge, so I added an extra barbarian level on those two and dropped Hellena. The crits and extra cold damage really piled up fast. I left the yeti barbarians normal for the final boss fight (all the yetis were there).
Character Name: Aruban
Race/Class Human Witch 7. Has delusions of being a capable melee fighter.
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Tunuaks hideout
Catalyst: Paralysis and a coup-de-grace
What happened:This is from the second group I am running Jade Regent for. The party arrived at Iqualiat and after the usual events of Tunuak trying to incite the village against the party he retreated to his hideout. After some dithering the party followed and met Naquun the possessed Ranger, who I smartly (this time ^^) had positioned outside the caves, which at this point were also officially the shamans altar to the wind spirits.
The party managed to find the secret door and Ameiko and Shalelu avoided falling into the trap via successful reflex saves. Upon entering Tunuaks inner sanctum, a fight got going immediately, with the four hoarfrost spirits dropping from the ceiling (one of them dropkicking Koya 15 feet through the air to fall 60 feet into the slush below, for a whopping 9 points of damage) and next round Aruban got hit with two claw attacks, making none of his two fortitude saves versus paralysis. Of course this was the moment where the quasit possessing Naquun revealed his treachery and stabbed Aruban through the throat with his spear.
There were some additional antics like Nezumi, the Sohei monk, jumping at a flying Tunuak from a high position and grappling him in mid-air, making both of them fall 30 feet to the ground (Tunuak only having STR 5, meaning his Fly spell got overloaded), but that is not really a relevant part of the obituary thread. ^^
There was some drama in getting Aruban back (for the third time in the campaign), because the character did not want to endanger the party by the use of the seal and made this clear via Divination and his familiar, even while dead. In the end, the party still went ahead, so I think there may be an Oni visit in their near future.
Character Name: Habesuta Hatsue
Race/Class Human Paladin/Sohei 11
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Defense of Seinaru Heikiko
Catalyst: Crit from a Ja-Noi oni with a spear.
Since I've been posting NPC deaths as well in this thread I figured I would continue. All the major NPC's and faces made appearances in the rather long protracted battle against Nigankona and his minions and the end of Book 5. This happened a few weeks back.
Taking the books advice, I upped the number of bad guys in the encounter in order to account for the large number of NPC's present and active during the battle in order to maintain a challenge.
Hatsue and the party's Cavalier road out of the stables together on their mounts and pressed on through a wall of fire in order to rescue some of their guards who were being slain by Nigankona and a group of Ja-noi and Kuwa Oni at the wrecked gate.
After a series of spirited charges and ride-by attacks, she was caught in a pincer of charging Ja-noi who managed to crit her, killing her outright.
The party fought on, and nearly lost 5 other NPC's (Koya, Miyaro, Spyvee, Ulf, and Jiro) before the cavalier managed to drop the mighty Nigankona with a charge of his own.
The group mourned her passing as the session ended and vowed to resurrect her if she was willing to once again fight for Minkai.
Character Name: Milmer Massery
Race/Class Halfling Bard/Ranger
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Never Nue what hit 'um.
Catalyst: Pounced on by Tosakage
This if from my other group that is still in book 5. As the group finally managed to piece together the clues with the shadow maze, they found Sayumi and Yugureda's wife and began to investigate while Tosakage was hiding in the shadows behind the large Vuudrani statue in the corner of the room.
Tosakage coalesced from his shadow form on the back of the statue and let lose in the surprise round with a wave of fatigue, and then in the first actual round he pounced on the small halfling who was caught unaware. A critical bite for 4 negative levels on an already con-damaged halfling spelled the end for pull Milimer as the Monkey-faced creature cackled and mocked the party.
The party was forced to press on without the help of their dear bard into a desperate fight with Shosaito.
Character Name: Auskrem
Race/Class Half-Orc Barbarian
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Never let a wizard give you the finger.
Catalyst: Suicidal Shosaito's staggered Finger of Death suicide attack.
After a desperate struggle against the displaced, shadow demon summoning wizard. The remaining party with NPC's(Koya, Hatsue, Kal(Magus), and Auskrem). Party members began to fall from some nasty area damage spells being tossed around by Shosaito. Eventually, the magus lands a critical spellstrike against the Wizard, dropping him low. A severely weakened(Strength damage and negative levels) Auskrem manages to land a blow that staggers the Wizard. The two exchange dramatic parting words, Shosaito uses his bonded ring to throw a finger of death on Auskrem, immediately killing the half orc as his final action of spite.
The Magus, incensed with the loss of two of his friends and allies, proceeds impale the dieing wizard, pinning him to the floor and cursing him angrily before turning to help the remaining two NPC's pick up the pieces.
Rough Session there.
The group will recover, most likely acting quickly to restore their fallen companions to life in short order, having both money and the seal at their disposal.
Character Name: Ameiko Amatatsu
Race/Class Human Aristocrat/rogue/bard
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Destrachan lair
Catalyst: Sonic overload
Yeah, four simultaneous failed reflex saves vs destructive harmonics AND the subsequent cave-in left her quite dead. Beyond the scope of a Breath of Life from our oracle.
She decided not to follow the other PCs as much after that dungeon. But at least it gave her a reason to level up several times.
Oh, I thought the group with Mikaze already had also finished Jade Regent, Asurasan? Anyway, sounds intense. Shosaito has a lot of personality, although we get to see very little of it. But the whole mansion really conveys a lot of it through its entire design. :)
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Oh, I thought the group with Mikaze already had also finished Jade Regent, Asurasan? Anyway, sounds intense. Shosaito has a lot of personality, although we get to see very little of it. But the whole mansion really conveys a lot of it through its entire design. :)
Nah, Mikaze's group was passed by my 'group 2' due to protracted scheduling issues over the holidays as well as some slight playstyle difference between the two groups of players.
Mikaze's group, was at times is a bit more 'slashy' in book 4, literally fighting their way through pretty much all of the Penance as well as the Spiders. They even brought out all the guns(all the leveled NPC's from the caravan) for the final showdown with Munasukaru leading up to a massive brawl. All that together ended up costing them a session or two that the other group was able to avoid by more covert means.
As for Shosaito, I really feel like I enjoyed his side plot the most in book 5(and considering how much I like book 5, that says a lot).
I felt his story was too interesting to not find a way to 'show' it to the players. So both groups learned quite a bit of his story while gathering information/meeting various NPC's. I had him monologue a good bit about his failed plan as well, both groups immediately being repulsed by the rather twisted nature of it.
Yeah, book 5 was pretty damn awesome. Makes you wish that they'd set an entire AP in Minkai and surroundings. Yugureda Shosaito pretty much exemplifies the "evil wizard" trope in my mind, in his demeanor, looks and the way he completely disregarded others wishes to get his way.
Anyway, I hope book six agrees with you and your group. :)
Yeah, book 5 was pretty damn awesome. Makes you wish that they'd set an entire AP in Minkai and surroundings. Yugureda Shosaito pretty much exemplifies the "evil wizard" trope in my mind, in his demeanor, looks and the way he completely disregarded others wishes to get his way.
Anyway, I hope book six agrees with you and your group. :)
Yeah, Book 5 is really cool. For my run, I'm adding even more factions that the PCs can team up with (some of whom don't like each other, so they'll have to make choices in where they find support), each with their own sidequests. This will probably effectively double the length of Part 5, which suits me just fine. I have them on Slow XP, so I probably won't overlevel them too much, and I'm already buffing the opposition since they bring a lot of their NPCs along with the new Relationship Rules and are mildly overleveled by Baleful Coven and Under Frozen Stars.
Fingers crossed, I have some rather big plans that are different between each group that should keep me as a GM invested in each of their separate stories.
I'm not going to share my stories and changes just yet for books 5 and 6, but I will make a point to share that in my 'wrap up' at the end of the campaign. My little side adventure/roleplay session between book 5 and 6 "Battle for Akafuto" was fun. Hope to share some details about that later!
Man, I can't wait to see your wrap-up post. :)
From yesterday's game session, again a boss fight reduced nothingness:
Character Name: Gangasum
Race/Class: Evil human barbarian bandit
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: Sheinaru Heikiko, his bedroom
Catalyst: Enlarged power attacking smite evil critical hit, critical hit, critical hit Suishen wielding fighter-paladin.
The PCs did find the secret entrance during the night. So all hell broke loose as they decided to go for full assault instead of stealth.
After finishing off the secondary threat in the common hall, they saw Gangasum's group at the end of the hallway. One fireball later, Gangasum was revealed behind the curtain.
Enlarged fighter-paladin overruns the guards to get into melee range of Gangasum, assuming correctly he was evil so his smite evil was activated. He even demanded that Gangasum surrenders. Gangasum rages, and proceeds to roll... poorly (all misees!)
Then the fighter-paladin rolls and confirms three critical hits... while power attacking with a smite evil and a flaming burst katana. When the first damage roll was over 100 points of damage, lets say that even with his DR, Gangasum was quickly reduced to a fine red mist.
Thereafter, we did convince some bandits to surrender and "recommend" they reconsider their lifestyle and allegiances.
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Character Name: Hellena
Race/Class Human Fighter 9/Paladin of Shizuru 6, party tank
Adventure: Tide of Hnor
Location: Siege of Seinaru Heikiko
Catalyst: Destroyed armored
What happened:The fire yai and atamahuta onis were looking for a female Amatatsu heir. Six female adventurers stepped out. They focused on the warrior carrying the ancestral katana Suishen, and that warrior was wearing a magical o-yoroi armor that hid her chelaxian origin.
One of the atamahuta dimension doored himself and the fire yai right in front of the warrior and the fire yai power attacked+vital striked a sunder on the armor with his tetsubo of the titans (triple damage against inanimate items). Her armor was completely destroyed.
Now with very low defenses, the fire yai continued its assault in addition to blasting her with his third eye fire bolt. The following round, the hasted atamahuta also joined the fray and deadly massive damage.
The only character able to save her was the oracle with her Breath of Life spell. Alas, she got caught in the second atamahuta's Black Tentacle spell.
In an interesting twist, the player had her character refuse to be brought back to life by the seal or raise dead spell (target must be willing). The player was still a bit in shock at the sheer brutality of what just transpired, and the loss of an irreplaceable armor.
We started book 6 and the other PCs just entered Kasai and will begin the imperial shrine island. After some discussion with the player, his character will make an unexpected surprise return as a full-fledged non-multiclassed shiny paladin of Shizuru (with maybe a half-celestial template, or asimaar race) that will appear in the temple of Shizuru that just happens to be the first stop on the island.
Being a paladin of the patron deity of the empire you're saving and an eligible imperial heir does have some non-standard perks. This late in the campaign, no one will complain.
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Name: Torhill Gutrunner
Race: Half-Orc
Classes/levels: Cleric of Gozreh 4
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: The Shrine to Sheylyn in Kalsgard
Catalyst: Large Earth Elemental
The group decided to run an all Cleric party out of Sandpoint's giant Cathedral that's home to six Gods, just so it's clear why a Cleric was taking point on this one. It's a great idea, I think, from a role-playing standpoint...but not all Clerics are as tough as, say, a Fighter or Barbarian. Anyway...
The Earth Elemental leveled the Shrine, and I played up the destruction of the city streets and people running for cover as the group approached. Torhill and Teme'reh (Cleric of Erastil) formed the front line and went toe-to-toe with the Elemental, both using their Domain powers to increase their size ala Enlarge Person for rounds at a time.
I just had the Elemental hammer on them, playing around with his Cleave feat until Torhill scored a really solid hit. Then I turned full attention on the Half-Orc, changing up tactics and using Power Attack instead.
The first slam attack put Torhill at -2HP, but he stayed on his feet due to Half-Orc Ferocity. I kinda winced, knowing that the Elemental wouldn't know or care about that neato Half-Orc feature, and kept swinging until the source of big damage was down. The second slam attack put him well past his Constitution score and into the Boneyard permanently.
Torhill had the Childhood Crush trait for Ameiko, and his final wishes was to have Ameiko keep his sword.
She's going to keep it with her all the way to the Jade Throne.
Had my first death last night, though the seal did bring him back.
Was an 8th level alchemist aimed more as a healer. What killed him was the Snow Spider's poison in the pass encounter of the Hungry Dead.
Spider got both him and Shalelu and the players were frantically trying to make the saves. Shalelu barley made her 2nd save, he failed.
The best part was the horror on the player's face when the remembered after they used the seal that they just announced to the Five Storms that they were still alive, and where exactly they were.