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Just for the fun of it (and to grow a sense of community), spout off your favorite moments in PFS that either made you or your players have a reaction of basically "Oh CRAP!". We've all got a few glory/horror stories, so lets hear em!
Probably the top story for me was as I was running First Steps Part II. The players had gone through all the intro text, figured out what they needed to do, and headed in.
They met the "friendly" ghoul, and despite having been told by a faction head "KILL UNDEAD THINGS, ALWAYS", they trusted it. They stroll along, scouting out the place (nearly dying to the wind trap, one character asked another how "wind" was pronounced in Kelish. WHOOSH!). They get to the beetles, clean that out, and head towards the room with the blindhelm. However, they had first noticed the pile of refuse, and detect magic showed there was something magical. No one wanted to climb in, so they had the ghoul go crawling in. As they fight the blindhelm (blinding half the party), they totally forget about the ghoul. The party of 5 is withdrawing back towards a larger room so they can get some decent flanks, when the cleric gets hammered. At 0 hitpoints, and had been the rear guard. Well, the cleric full action withdraws...adjacent to the ghoul. The blindhelm follows, misses with its attack, and the player thinks he's safe. And then, in my best creepy voice (about a 3/10 on the creepy scale), the ghoul says "But you look sooooo *tasty*....and I'm sooooo HUNGRY!!!". The table drops dead silent, and then the cleric's player announces "Holy S***!" Full attack ensues on a blinded flanked foe. More than enough to perma kill the player's character. The rest of the party is just stunned. The party falls back to absalom, and I let the slain cleric take a whack at the scenario with a new pregen (more than 3 encounters left, and its a repeatable scenario). Long story short, it turned into a rather epic 5.5 hour module...but the party felt supremely victorious when they returned to Absalom.
So, lets hear your stories! Tell them in a group, or space them out over several posts, its up to you!
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Great topic. Mine are from Eyes of Ten. I ran the full arc over a weekend for two different groups in June and July last summer. They are, of course, true Pathfinders through and through. Huge spoiler alerts below.
Same group as above, they think they have the situation well in hand when the two purple worms explode from the floor in part 1. There were several exclamations of owe crap and worse when the stone golems were vomited forth, right next to a squishy PC or two.
The third Instance is in part 4 when the PCs get out of the shadow room and start exploring the upper levels of the tower. They arrive at the pillar of angel souls and all of their mouth's drop because they think is is a completely evil device. It is then, that most finally come to the realization that the Decemvirate is not good at all, but in act tow a neutral line. This was cemented in may of their minds when they find that instead of the Decemvirate killing their most notable enemies, they trap them for later Pathfinder Society use in a mirror of life trapping.
Both groups also very much enjoyed the tying in of a certain barbarian and witch from previous adventures when they came to the realization that they helped the barbarian live in Frozen Fingers of Midnight.
All five moments above were awesome realization moments by the PCs at both of my tables.
Venture-Lieutenant, South Dakota—Rapid City
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Just for the fun of it (and to grow a sense of community), spout off your favorite moments in PFS that either made you or your players have a reaction of basically "Oh CRAP!". We've all got a few glory/horror stories, so lets hear em!
Probably the top story for me was as I was running First Steps Part II. The players had gone through all the intro text, figured out what they needed to do, and headed in.
** spoiler omitted **...
The haunt in that same adventure was quite the surprise for two players who failed Will saves and jumped in at the same time via compulsion... then failing and jumping back in after being pulled out!
The biggest surprise of the night for them was that the Paladin, who was Color Sprayed two other times (once in Part I and earlier in Part II by the sorta crazy party Illusionist) was the only one to resist the Skulk's Color Spray, chased after him, and one-shotted him with a heavy pick critical hit just before he escaped with the jade katana.
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Had a group playing Rescue at Azlant Ridge open the vault and see the feet of the huge Azlanti iron golems at the bottom of the staircase. One player had an epiphany. He possessed a golembane scarab and they had just brought in a wagonload of crossbow bolts. Making the assumption that the golems were going to be hostile at some point, he proposed they take out the golems from the entryway using his crossbow. Everyone drank the Kool-Aid and went along with the plan. I kept a poker face. All four golems were reduced to scrap metal and the players congratulated themselves for avoiding a difficult encounter. The continued on and obtained the Azlanti puzzle-cube. When they exited the vault the huge Angazhani Champion made his appearance and they collectively realized what they had done to themselves. There was much wailing and lamentation.
They actually survived, but only because the Angazhani Champion was not statted correctly as a CR 14 opponent--and I rolled a nat 1 against a hideous laughter at a critical moment.
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Let's see. Favorite surprise moments. Hmmm...
Spoilers for The Pallid Plague:
City of Strangers. Miss Feathers. Nuff said.
I'm sure I'll think of more later.
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In Tide of Twilight:
The PCs were crossing the river. The group's barbarian was eager to show off his manly prowess, and decided to jump across instead of using the trapped log. His jump fell short by one square and he landed in the water, exactly in the square with the hidden crocodile. Once the other players managed to stop laughing, a chaotic fight ensued, with other PCs rushing into the trap in attempt to join the barbarian in the battle.
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Let's see. Favorite surprise moments. Hmmm...
Spoilers for The Pallid Plague:
** spoiler omitted **City of Strangers. Miss Feathers. Nuff said.
I'm sure I'll think of more later.
I loved that bit.
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In the Shadow Gambit:
** spoiler omitted **
LOL
This has become a recurring joke in our group, actually. After narrowly defeating the final battle in that adventure, and one other where we similarly got our butts kicked by a bad guy of that type, we're all paranoid about having to face any more of them.
We faced one as the main bad guy of yet another adventure last week, and we were all terrified of how badly that final fight would go. Ironically, we kicked his butt in one round.
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The Twofold Demise (tier 3-4):
The players capture and interrogate the shadow lodge operatives who assault them in the market square. They give cryptic hints about the lodge's defenses, but the PCs fail their knowledge checks to identify the creature being described. Cue the PCs going up against a troll with no source of fire or acid damage.
The Dalsine Affair:
Sadly, no Taldans or Qadira in the group to witness the Pasha offing the Baron. But then 2 rounds later, the real Chalfon Dalsine comes out of invisibility and one-shots the party ninja, my group's first PC death.
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As a local coordinator and very regular GM, I find it difficult to actually be surprised by any encounters lately when I do get to actually play. I've ran a fair number of scenarios and read a good deal more for future planning. This means checking the Bestiaries for monsters included in adventures, just to make sure I'm familiar with them.
However, I got to play in a game recently that I was COMPLETELY surprised by the final encounter. I had never even heard of the creature, as I try to avoid reading all of the Bestiary entries for this reason.
I nearly had a heart attack. Not to mention that I have a ridiculously-high level of arachnophobia in real life, making it quite the experience. But definitely a memorable one, and one of my favorite Society moments I've had.
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Venture-Captain, Massachusetts—Central & West
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(High tier version)
As the party approaches the Swift Prison, the constable talks to them about the Derro invasion. If asked what to expect, the constable tells the party about a rust monster and how they locked it inside the prison.
As this point, all four party members start disrobing and taking off armor, switching weapons to their "expendable" weapons, sending in the summoner's eidolon ahead, and panicking as they enter the prison. (For the sake of suspense, I rolled a dice a few times behind my binder, to look sneaky.)
When they get to a certain room, they find the rust monster already dead, and breathe a sigh of relief. Then a Huge Earth Elemental pops up as soon as they let their guard down.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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My first steps Pt II:
Best moment was when they opened the prison cells. "There's a horrid stench, decay, rotted meat and mold." *points to barbarian* "You're nauseus" *points to barbarian #3* "You're nauseaus" *points to rogue* "You're nauseaus" *points to barbarian #2, with ghoul fever, "You're salivating." Player of barbarian #2 starts freaking.
I love GMing for children!