Update on character deaths:
After resurrecting my original character, Alfred the Blood-drinker, he died to Fishpork, the same session he came back.
GM was nice enough to give me an extra round before calling him officially dead though, and the party brought him back to life.
Wow, what a way to introduce a kid to Skull and Shackles.
Wormwood Mutiny, Bonewrack Isle
Hero points saved this one, which would otherwise have been a fatality.
After so brilliantly bluffing and intimidating their way to a prisoner exchange with the grindylows (Plugg, Scourge and Tam "Narwhal" Tate for Sandara and Rosie), the new captain of the Man's Promise so very nearly met an end at what I considered would be a cake walk.
Captain (for 2 days) Firix Drakethorn, 1/2 Drow, Lvl 3 Cavalier/Bard is tying up loose threads after having rescued some dear crew members from a long dark hell in captivity of the grindylows. One of those things was investigating the shipwreck they spied from the top of the ridge on Bonewrack Isle.
So they were only two to directly face the young giant moray eel. The eel first targeted the sorceress who was kept safe for a couple of rounds thanks to her mage armor. The captain then drew attention to himself and got the next attack. The eel successfully latched on to the side just above the hip. Over the next 3 rounds it delivered close to maximum damage (without critting). The sorceress, on a critical miss, discovered the unintended area effect of electrical damage, harming herself, her captain and the eel by about 3 hp ea. Firix was unable to escape the grab and felt the particular pain of the secondary inner mouth boring through the circle outlined by the primary teeth. On the 3rd round, with the captain a 1 hp, the eel brought him to exactly negative-CON. The sorceress was in the midst of getting the other 2 PCs engaged when she saw her captain give up his last breath underwater.
Once the other 2 got involved, they managed to chase the eel away.
The death is ascribed in part to his (wise, I thought) decision to remove his chain shirt before jumping in and my rule-bending interpretation of the fumble involving electricity damage. Both valid points.
It was really rather sudden and anticlimactic after having just successfully mutinied and delivered Sandara and Rosie. We had to process the moment. Firix did not have enough hero points to buy the death-dodge. I let the player take his time and decide whether he wanted to try a new concept or forfeit all hero points for the next level (they're close to lvl 4) to keep playing the same character.
We were both rather invested in this PC so he accepted the hit on hero points to carry on. The crew looked on in somber mood as they watched the dinghy return with their downed captain. Sandara, who owed these new officers her new lease on life, would not accept this outcome. With bitter exhortations to the unfeeling Pirate Queen, Sandara doggedly maintained CPR while channeling in a recreation of the scene from the Abyss where the hero revives the love interest after jointly coming to the decision that she would deliberately drown as he was the more powerful swimmer of the two who would get them both to safety in a life-risking gambit. After an obviously long while where Sandara's stubbornness seems to be playing out as a pathetic abuse of the captain's corpse, Firix heaves up a lungful of water and is ecstatically welcomed back among the living. The captain is extremely well-aware of the narrowness of his brush death and knows he is on karmic probation with no hero points for the next while.
DMing a party of 7 players for this adventure ( I know, call me crazy, but I adjust the CR sometimes almost tripling it, but they still make through, 5 of the players are really experienced )
At the time this was the party setup all at level 4:
Lawful Evil Tiefling Inquisitor of Asmodeus ( rest of the party doesn't know he's evil )
Chaotic Neutral Half-Elf Bard
Chaotic Neutral Half-Orc Barbarian
Chaotic Neutral Human Ranger
Chaotic Neutral Human Fighter
Chaotic Evil Human Rogue ( rest of the party doesn't know he's evil )
Chaotic Neutral Half-Elf Sorceress (Air Elementalist)
My players aren't exactly what you would call sane (notice the lack of healers) , we're currently on the second book, raiders of the fever sea.
Have yet to have a player death, but this one was the closest they have ever got:
During that period where they're trying to amass more disrepute and infamy, I made my own village for them to make port.
Everything seemed normal, until they got to the tavern, they started to notice something suspicious, the follower of Asmodeus quickly noticed the bartender had a necklace with the symbol of his evil deity, so he just chose to ignore it, and acted as if nothing was wrong.
During the night, one of the players overheard some chanting coming from a windowless wooden building to the north of the tavern, and they decided it would be a great idea to go investigate demonic chanting (in abyssal of course) coming from the place.
They all arrived at the door, made a really good stealth check to open the door without making any noise. Upon opening the door, they saw a child strapped to a stone altar covered in blood, a cultist with a dagger raised above said child, and the crowd of cultists chanting.
The 2 evil characters in the group, made some good bluff checks and convinced the group to not do anything, as this wasn't their fight, but the other characters decided to try and stop, and they convinced the others to join in.
(This was 100% improv btw) As soon as the "battle" started, none of the 7 players were able to deliver a fatal blow in time to the cultist about to kill the child, so he stabbed the child, and a Bearded devil sprung from the evil sacrifice, the demon ripped out of the altar, and forced the cultist to do the same to himself, and another bearded devil sprung.
(Keep in mind these all have DR which the party didn't have, and also had fire/lightning resistances which really screwed up with the sorceress)
By the 3rd round, the devils were using the power of the unholy grounds to kill the cultists in the crowd to spawn more devils to join in on the fun.
By the 4th round, the barbarian managed to get on top of the altar and land a critical hit with Vicious Thunderous scythe ( yeah that hurt and killed one of the bearded devils )
By the 7th round there was at least 45 devils spawned ( 2 bearded, the rest all lesser ones ) but the group delivered some insane crits from this point on, with 4 of the players being unconscious.
By the end of the battle they decided to keep the evil artifact dagger and use it in combat, which resulted in some pretty mean carnage aboard their ship once the demonic power of the dagger took over control of the rogue.
Long story short, 15 people dead by this dagger, they eventually brought into a consecrated ground outside their fortress at tidewater and got the demon out and destroyed it and the dagger.
Good times were had by all ;)
First casualty last night:
Name: Jin Ho
Race: Human
Class: Level 2 Samurai
Cause of Death: Jin Ho was about to be whipped in the bloody hour aboard the Man's Promise by Plugg, for performing poorly during his stint swabbing the deck. He declined the invitation and stabbed the acting captain instead, initiating an early mutiny. It didn't end well for the poor chap though, as Plugg got in a critical hit which took him down to -20. The raging barbarian took Plugg out in the next round, with an axe. :)
Wormwood Mutiny, Day 4.
Name: Montague Jack, male human Druid 1
Cause: Shipmates
First day of the campaign!
Having dispatched the bilge rats, the party was summoned on deck for the Bloody Hour. Still owing Master Scourge 3 lashes from the previous day, he decided instead to attack the bo'sun with a belaying pin. Scourge, Plugg, and four of their cronies quickly beat the druid silly and dropped his unconscious body over the side to drown.
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Wormwood Mutiny, Day 4.
Name: Montague Jack, male human Druid 1
Cause: Shipmates** spoiler omitted **
I'm the player of Montague Jack the druid that eljaspero just posted about. He was the DM and he left out a major detail. Montague Jack was still seething with rage because the DM (eljaspero) took it upon himself to have the pirates murder (no fight or anything, just automatic) his ape animal companion right as the campaign began, and then serve it for dinner to the crew the next night.
I can't wait to read the module after we are finished with it to find out if "murdering animal companions" was a suggestion or just something "fun" my DM thought up.
Also eljaspero, if you mean they "beat the druid silly", with cutlasses, then you are correct.
Do not read the module until you are done with the entire campaign. If you do, then you should quit playing before you read it.
If memory serves, " the script " is a death sentence for larger creature companions. Smaller critters (familiars) and seemingly harmless pets are one thing ... something that big that certainly reacted when you PC was Shanghai'd against a group of NPCs that are capable, at a minimum, of casting color spray or sleep are going to easily dispatch a single 1st level animal companion with perhaps 15 or so hit points compared to hostiles that, were you to encounter them in play, would compromise an encounter CR far beyond the "almost impossible" scale.
Part of this is to drive home that you are not going to "have a chance" against everything you encounter in the campaign. You are definitely not encountering Very Nice People. If you are accustomed to the more common structure of previous Adventure Paths, you are in for an incredibly rude surprise in this campaign. Pay attention to the clues that the flavor text and NPC behaviors hand you. Use simple divination spells, discreetly, to gather information.
i have a dirty dwarven witch with a peg leg that only wears Pantaloons and his familiar is a Platypus, the whole time he's saying "Arrr! i got me a Platypus in me Pantaloons!" no one searched his pantaloons once
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Lives have come and gone since the last time I wrote in this thread. Below are the new names added to my list of shackle-y deaths!
Fafmir Ladyhands
Elf Wizard 3
Death:Drowned by summoned squid when fighting the Brinebrood queen.
Last words: "...I don't wanna die like a japanese schoolgiiiiirl!" (said out of character)
Captain Olhaf Leatherskin
Half-Orc Fighter 3/Barbarian 1
Death:Impaled on Royster McCleagh's greatsword and died standing up.
Last words: "...take the damn axe..."
Sil'Rand
Elf Ranger 6
Death:Slept in a dingy right below the canopy creeper of mancatcher cove. Was pulled up and eaten alive, then had his wolf companion crushed when the new captain failed his Profession(Sailor) check and ran the ship aground on the beach where the dying wolf was lying.
Last words: "...idiots..."
Celia
Elf Wizard 6
Was alive for only 50 real-life minutes.
Death: Was rescued from imprisonment in the sahuagin caves and later killed and turned into a coral statue by king Krelloort wielding Zul.
Last words: "..."
Chazo the undying
Catfolk ninja 7
Death: Torn apart by a couple of hammerhead sharks in the sahuagin caves of mancatcher cove.
Last words: "...for the captain..."
Ex-Captain Boram "Ballbuster"
Halfling Monk 5/Shintao Monk1/Cleric 2
Death: Eaten alive by a globster during a prison escape in Port Peril. The only thing left of him was his wee pegleg.
Last words: [Unknown]
Durim
Dwarf Barbarian 8
Torn to shreads by the blackwater charda when he approached the wreck of the brine banshee by himself.
Last words: "Oh well..."
Current party consists of:
Captain Olhaf "Whorekiller" Leatherskin (Brought back to life)
Half-orc fighter 4/barbarian 4/Dread pirate 1
Era
Human Samurai 10
Mistra
Human fighter(archer) 10
Wuu'thax
Human sorcerer 5/Dragon disciple 5
I'll keep you updated on the fates of these poor individuals.
D3
Corvus
Male tengu rogue 5/fighter 1
Death: In the caves of Mancatcher Cove, the PCs did battle with the Sahuagin Matriarch. An early sneak attack and critical from the tengu nearly killed her, but using her superior swim speed, she retreated to the far end of her chamber, summoning guards. In the rounds it took the tengu to reach her, she used potions of cure moderate wounds and mage armor and awaited him with a total defense while her guards swarmed in, surrounding the gunslinger and bard near the entrance. The witch was in the middle of the room between the groups.
The sahuagin warriors endangered the bard bringing her perilously close to dying, and the gunslinger, unable to use his gun underwater, tried to defend her with Brine's Sting. The tengu was confident he could hold the Matriarch alone for the itme being, so the witch went to assist the others with her +1 longspear. Unfrotunately the tengu underestimated how hard the Matriarch could hit and her reach combined with his slow escape speed underwater meant his friends couldn't reach him in time to save him form her.
De Mazra, Boatsman's mante
Half-elf Bard (achaeologist)/rogue 3/2, from Taldor
Death: Snatched from the quarterdeck by a random encounter merrow, drowned, munched, digested
Last words: "A troll ?"
Merrow was using his claws to slowly climb up onto the ship, DeMazra looked over the sides to find out what the splashing and hammering noises meant. And she did.
Attacked on surprise, beaten to the initiative on the following round, 3 sweeps from the claws beat her unconscious and grabbed by the troll descending to the depths with his "fresh food"
Slickjaw, Goblin Vivisectionist Alchemist 4
Cause of Death: Falcata Crit, courtesy of Gortus Svard (who I buffed somewhat to a level 7 Slayer and tweaked his Feats, but the damage would have killed him regardless here).
Bravely stood up to the hulking muscular Hobgoblin-y pirate man and was beheaded for his troubles. RIP Slickjaw, you will be missed (maybe...).
If memory serves, " the script " is a death sentence for larger creature companions.
I recall nothing of the sort. It in fact suggests, rather, that the PC begin with no Animal Companion at all to start (why would they kidnap an ape if they were just going to kill it the next morning, for one?) and acquire one later.
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Character: Olhas
Class/Race/Level/etc: level 2 gillman summoner
Module: The first one, Wormwood Mutiny
Cause: Vine Choker
Details:
Party had some issues from the beginning. No one had any healing, for example. Summoner thought he was a melee combatant as he had like a 12-13 Cha and a 16 Con and 14 Str. When they first arrived on the island, they decided to sail around and ended up beaching the boats and walking through the corn fields. I randomly rolled to see which of the 6 possible targets the ankheg was likely going to murder, and it was the summoner's eidolon. The party did beat back the ankheg and kill it, but they lost the eidolon in the process, which was why he wasn't a factor in the next combat. On top of that, the party was pretty beat up by the time they reached the stockade. No healing other than a few potions, and they didn't escape the initial grindylow encounter unscathed, and hadn't rested since then.
To set the stage, I have five players:
Gillman Summoner (Olhas)
Drow Ninja (Han)
Gnome Bard ("Bait")
Elf Fighter (Sae)
Human Magus (Bernard)
The magus player is by far the most skilled of the bunch, with the fighter's character having only a quarter of the experience, but still having twice as much as the other three combined. The poor bard didn't have any offensive capabilities outside of flare, daze, and cause fear. The ninja almost never set up a flank, and quite often would fire into melee through heavy cover with his bow instead of trying to engage, and I mentioned the summoner's penchant for melee attacks.
So we pull up into the stockade, and I rolled a pretty low stealth for the two chokers, so the party sees them up there. I allow "Bait" to roll for knowledge on them, and he doesn't have a clue, but Olhas's player recognizes chokers from the bestiary, and I'm using the Skull and Shackles tokens. He still moves forward and attempts to cast Summon Monster I, except he does it within range. The choker immediately hits, interrupts the spell, grapples, and now Olhas is dangling by his neck in this tree, the choker eagerly waiting his turn in initiative to pull him up into the higher branches. "Bait" casts his one decent spell, Cause Fear, and nails the choker with Olhas. Olhas drops, barely conscious, and that choker flees. The other choker puts up a good fight (I rule that the party can, as a standard action, jump and swing at the choker, who is still on a branch ten feet above the ground), and lands a few very solid hits before he drops. Party is all still alive, but they know there is a second choker in the tree, and they know they've only got a round or two before it comes down for revenge.
"Bait", Sae, and Bernard decide to take cover in the lodge. They move to the door and see Ivy dangling from his suicide attempt. Bernard is suspicious, and casts a Ray of Frost at him to make sure he's dead. I rule that because Ivy knows he needs to stay still and pretend to be dead to lure people close, he can make a Will save to not flinch, with the result being the DC of the Perception check necessary to see him flinch. Only Sae notices. However, the Ray of Frost stirs up the botfly swarm on the body, which moves to the door, engulfs Bernard, and immediately drops him unconscious. Technically Bernard died two rounds later from the bleed, but we're using hero points, and he blew two of them to stay alive. By this point Han has moved up and cleverly uses a smoke stick to disperse the swarm, which I ruled worked well enough as I didn't want to TPK my party. Meanwhile, "Bait", terrified of what the chokers can do, and not hearing Sae's warning about the dangling corpse due to the excitement of the swarm, moves into the lodge and starts looking for anything useful. That's when Ivy pounced, grabbed "Bait", and used him to free himself.
At this point, several things happen. Sae, having kept an eye out for the second choker, sees it recover and start to come back down the tree. Olhas, who was barely conscious, drinks a potion of healing, bring himself back into double digit HPs. He does this after strategically retreating, by himself, outside of the stockade. When he sees that he's the only one that pulled back, instead of forward, he moves back inside, around the same time Sae moves around to defend the group from the second choker. "Bait" is trapped in the lodge with the ghast, and has a single, non-MW dagger, to protect himself. Han is trying to staunch the bleeding from poor Bernard. Han sees the ghast, and decides it's time to move to engage it. Instead of setting up a flank with the gnome, he wants to try out his new flask of alchemist's fire, which he carelessly throws (even after we explained exactly how it worked) into a space adjacent to "Bait", who takes a point of splash damage. The ghast took 3 points of damage, which annoyed it more than anything. "Bait's" player was terrified of the ghast turning and attacking him, and he wanted to drink the potion of invisibility that he had pulled out, but instead the ghast stepped forward and in a flurry of three attacks dropped the drow.
The choker, meanwhile, goes after Olhas again, easily hits, again, and establishes a grapple... again. Olhas's player could have avoided all of that, of course, but was eager to attempt to strike at it with his longspear. So eager, in fact, that instead of doing something to help his situation, he made a feeble attempt at stabbing his strangler. And even with a glancing blow from Sae, there was nothing to stop the choker from pulling Olhas into the tree and strangling him into unconsciousness on his next turn, retreating out of range of Sae's attacks.
In the lodge, "Bait" (maybe you understand now where he's gotten that name), has the space to drink his potion without provoking an AoO, and is now invisible, however Ivy is between him and the one door. And Ivy is smart enough to know what has just happened. He drags the unconscious Han into the room, shuts the door behind him, and sits with his back to it, watching the room, and waiting for "Bait" to reappear. Meanwhile, he can start on his main course: drow.
Sae has given up on Olhas (after I described the crunching sounds and splatters of blood dropping from above), and turns back to the lodge and the unconscious but (thanks to hero points) stable Bernard, who happens to have an undrunk potion of Cure Moderate Wounds in his backpack. Quickly administering it to the magus, he brings him out of the red, and the two kick open the door to the lodge (or rather swing it open). Ivy takes an AoO standing up, but paralyzes the magus. Sae stabs him in the face, though, and that's the end of that. "Bait" is found a few minutes later cowering under the bed when his invisibility wears off. Han had been taking 1 or 2 points of damage a round from the ghast gnawing on him, and was still barely alive. The occasional bit of Olhas could still be heard bouncing off the roof of the lodge.
What happens next is even more absurd, but I think I've already shared enough stories, and somehow we've still only got the single death.
Do tell!
Unfortunately I likely won't get to add much to this thread, as I plan to offer hero points, 2 for revival. If you only have 1, you get away with your life but with a roll from the permanent damage chart, though if it's too detrimental like the loss of an arm for a two weapon fighting guy, then I'll allow them to either to live with the disability or expire.
I'm sure I'll have a reason to post in here after next session.
While discussing replacement PCs, cleric and oracle came up quite a bit. And were immediately shot down, as the player decided that for a balanced party they needed more damage dealing.
Our newest party member is Haluk the ranged hobgoblin ranger. Who is rocking a 16 Con and the Toughness feat. ...yeah... I'm not sure how many feats a 2nd level ranger is supposed to have, but... Toughness.
I forced the player to buy a Wand of Cure Light Wounds in his starting equipment. And while he's got 29 HPs and more HPs than the rest of the party currently has combined, he has yet to pull out the wand. The session was coming to an end with him being the only one conscious, after the fighter spent two rounds at 0 HPs basically serving as a body shield to buy time for Haluk. Haluk who was swimming next to two unconscious allies for 4 rounds, and didn't make an attack himself until he was the only character left in positive HPs.
Almost a second TPK. The fight ended with Haluk at 1 HP. And he then proceeds to pull his wand out and heal himself completely, and then just barely brings the rest of the party back into positive HPs. He's still floating around with more HPs than everyone else combined. I cannot imagine how we'll still be playing this adventure path thirty minutes into the next session.
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Come all from far and wide, gather round and feast your ears upon tales of woe and destruction as those who set out upon the seas of Golarion come to their sticky ends.
Post your stories as you come up with them
1) Our Orc Barbarian Gron, who died with a critical fumble cut off his own leg and died while battle the Sahaugin Barbarian and Isabella Locke.
2) Steve the Goblin Magus who electrocuted himself and died while fighting a sea monster.3) The Antipaladin who wanted to be captain and was keelhauled in AP Module 3.
4) Hellbrix the Tiefling/Devil fighter who died at the hands of a Cyclops critical.
5) Our Gunslinger who died at the hands of a smashing critical from the Greater Cyclops lord.
6) Our Human Druid who the undead greater Cyclops killed.
More to come...
Character: Crull Gutterax
Class/Race/Level/etc: Barbarian 3
Module: Wormwood Mutiny
Cause: Swallowed by the whale!
Details: After being wounded by the devilfish in the previous chamber and taking a critical (and grappled) in the first round against the Brinebrood Queen, he was swallowed taking just enough damage to drop him into unconsciousness. No one else could finish off the Whale quickly enough to prevent him being digested.
Character: Lendis Saquin
Class/Race/Level/etc: Sea Witch 3
Module: Wormwood Mutiny
Cause: Lacedon food
Details: Since the player was going to be a way for a while, I had his character be the one captured with Sandara during the night raid. During the fight against the Brinebrood Queen, while the barbarian was being eaten (see above), our brave captain dove in after the two captives. Having to choose one or the other, he naturally went for the redhead...
After two years of playing, you'd think our group would have more casualties but as you might surmise, our pace of play is a little on the slow side.
Name of PC: Malikor of the Crashing Horde (aka Feuertrunken)
Class/Level: Hobgoblin Fighter 1/Cleric 3 of General Moloch
Adventure: Raiders of the Fever Sea
Catalyst: Decapitation via critical hit card
Story: The crew was attacking a small village, and there was already another ship in dock there. The crew and the villagers were drinking and carousing, but the officers and the village leaders were having a working dinner. Captain Ambrex heard the alert as the PCs were slaughtering village guards and charged in, weaving and dancing with her magical cutlass. With one swift stroke, she struck at Malikor's neck and removed him from the fight.
Name of PC: Leitauk of the Crashing Horde (aka Captain Smuggles)
Class/Level: Hobgoblin Fighter 1/Inquisitor 4 of Asmodeus
Adventure: Tarin's Crown as part of Raiders of the Fever Sea
Catalyst: toxic assassin vine
Story: Leitauk was scouting ahead when the assassin vine grabbed her. She couldn't get free quickly enough, and succumbed.
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Name: Kemnos Voss
Race / Class: Arctic Elf Swashbuckler (Flying Blade)
Adventure: The Wormwood Mutiny
Catalyst for Death: Possible brain damage.
Story: Kemnos Voss, who, with only a +1 Climb skill, still managed to become The Wormwood's new rigger with a series of well placed rolls; who continuously attempted to seduce Rosie Cusswell and Grok, trying to find out what they missed from before they joined the crew so he could get it for them, and pass them his rations of rum every night because he had no real love for rum (Remember that. It will figure in later); who did his job dutifully every day in the rigging, was never whipped once, who made certain to follow orders to the best of his ability every time and thus not earn the wrath of any of his superiors; who spent his second to last day on the Wormwood doing his job in the rigging and then falling nearly to his death from the top of the ship (thus receiving his possible brain damage); who spent his last day on the Wormwood climbing back into the rigging, dutifully doing his job and then AGAIN falling nearly to his death; who, as you will recall, has no love for rum, and tried to get rid of it every chance he could?
He was challenged to a rum drinking contest.
And he accidentally drank himself to death.
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Everyone else figured that Voss differed brain damage from the first fall, which caused the second, which caused him to actually join in on a rum drinking contest (any other game he would have aced. With his 10 Con, he was destined for failure. The worst part is that he couldn't have possibly succeed in the last Con check, but I didn't know that, and he was past caring.
Last Words: "...'m NOT BACKIN' DOWN!"
Con checks: 6, 2, 2.
And now I'm playing Jack Scrimshaw.
Oh so close... Ended up having to rescue the whole party by locathah ex machina on saturday.... Whole party failed their saves vs kelpies.
Required a total of 5 failed saves.
I think one of my players rolled 3 natural ones in a row on a d20 that night, followed by a pair of natural 20's. Very polarizing rolls.
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Zeroth things zeroth: Our group's last attempt at Skull & Shackles kinda petered out a couple years ago, so I'm not going to eulogize that here. (Yet, anyway.) We started anew a few weeks ago, with me running it this time!
And last night, we had our first* casualty offering to Besmara!
Name: Sharkskinned Bellian
Race: Duergar Gunslinger
Origins: Port Peril
Adventure: The Wormwood Mutiny
Location: Somewhere on the Maelstrom Ocean
Cause of Death: SHARK
A Crew of th' Damned: First things first, our party in Skull & Shackles:
- Ro'Byrts: A drow rogue with a century of nautical experience. I let him use cutlasses with Weapon Finesse because it kinda fits the conceit of piracy. Known to be quite the (well-liked!) conversationalist for a dark elf, and single-handedly pulled off a theft on Cutthroat's quartermaster shop that resulted in the four extremely antagonistic deckhands from Day Two getting a fatal keelhauling each. He was a swab on the Wormwood.
- Sharkskinned Bellian: The duergar gunslinger in question, who really enjoys talking about the history of the duergar, the kittens he ate, and the atrocities his ancestors committed against the dwarves during the Two Hundred Years' War. His leg was taken off by a shark years ago, and as a result Sharkskin had a psychotic hatred of all aquatic life whatsoever. It is only fitting that he was buddy-buddy with Ambrose Kroop.
- John Fargloom: An undine druid whose animal companion is Blackey, an orca. He was a rigger, but enjoyed going to the bilges anyway because he was (somehow) able to psychically contact Blackey after a few days of separation. He also nearly got the Wormwood torn apart by reefs while he was the lookout.
- Grue: A half-orc paladin(!) He tries to not kill anything. He was a swab as well, despite having to be taught shipboard directions at least twice, and consistently failed every single attempt at the Runner errand. (Guess what job Plugg started heaping unto him on Day 17. =p)
Makin' Friends Among Th' Crew: Over the course of the (somewhat boring) shanghaied-into-doing-pirate-crew-grunt-work part of the game, the group befriended Sandara, Kroop, Rosie Cusswell, and Badger (one of the minor crewmembers that only has a generic statblock, thanks Paizo.) Nobody really dealt with Cog save for one really awkward conversation with Grue (that led to "(smack!) This is your fore! (smack!) This is your aft! (smack!) This is your port! (smack!) And this is yer starboard!" "Fort... ass... port... not port?"), and nobody wanted to deal with Conchobar. As for the dwarf on the ship... well, he and Sharkskin got into a little "theological argument" (READ: "old-timey bare-knuckle drag-out fist fight") that ended with Sharkskin swearing a vengeance against the dwarf.
What Sharkskinned Bellian Did: So overnight after the brawl, Sharkskin slashes the dwarf's throat in his bunk and dumps the corpse overboard. Grue sees him, and after a hilariously bungled chat that wound up becoming "Sharkskin accidentally confesses to murder," narcs on him to Captain Harrigan. Harrigan is really pissed off at this, but Mr. Plugg steps in with his own form of "execution."
Sharkskin gets to go fight Owlbear the very next night. (This was not something I threw in, this was literally the night before the scripted fight with Owlbear and just excellent timing on the player's part.)
(Insert the Gilette Stay Sharp March Here): Owlbear, the next night, I play up about as dumb as a box of rocks as I could, and Sharkskin's player and I call our attacks as we roll dice. (I actually wound up singing Don Flamenco's theme in Owlbear's voice, and let's just say many a Punch-Out!! reference was made.)
Now, a big point of divergence in our group's playthrough: When my character, Kara of Rain and Thunder, fought Owlbear back in 2012, she said "This is no fight! This is bullying a child! I won't stand for this!" once Owlbear tried to break off the fight.
When Owlbear tried to break off the fight in 2014, Sharkskin grinned, said "There's nowhere to run, dumbass!!!" and proceeded to beat the crap out of him.
He then blames the rest of the party for him getting caught murdering the dwarf. Sharkskin gets called out for what he did, and Sharkskin, like any reasonable person, proceeds to tell Captain Harrigan that the rest of the party, Sandara, Kroop, and a couple others were going to mutiny.
The ACME Detective School Graduate: Problem with such a heavy accusation is, you need actual proof that six people are planning a mutiny, and everyone involved proceeds to lie to Harrigan and Plugg that Sharkskin was the only one pulling for mutiny. Sharkskin is sentenced to a keelhauling, which he actually managed to survive thanks to low damage rolls and John Fargloom casting Goodberry, along with the instructions "Don't swallow unless you need to!" (Where did he get the berries? Ro snuck into Harrigan's quarters as Corky the cabin girl was entering, and bribed her to get some berries.)
Time Passes...: Eventually, the Man's Promise, a Pellaen cruising vessel, is spotted on the horizon. The Wormwood closes, and our intrepid band is chosen to raid the sterncastle and capture the ship. Ro gets in the rigging, ready to swing over, while the party (along with their hired NPC allies, Sandara and Conchobar) prepare to grappling hook and climb over. The water between the vessels is chummed, both crews line up on the deck chanting like the Corcians from Atlantis's second season premiere, and then...
Round One
Ro: (swings onto the Man's Promise and casts Darkness on himself)
Sandara, Grue, and Conchobar: (grapple the Man's Promise and tie off their lines)
John Fargloom: (gets a running start and leaps over, landing in a lifeboat. The vessels were much closer than stated in the book, but what the hell.)
Sharkskin: (decides Conchobar would be much more useful as shark bait and fails miserably at bull rushing him into the water)
Round Two
Ro: (fights the Pellaens with dual-wielding cutlassery... or as close to it as a first level character can get.)
Sandara and Grue: (climb over to the Man's Promise; Sandara is nearly shot by one of the Pellaen musketmen on the sterncastle)
John: (starts running to the mizzenmast on the Man's Promise)
Conchobar: What are you doing, you murderous oaf!?
Sharkskin: (obvious lie) I'm... TRYING to help you board the enemy ship!
Conchobar: I don't need YOUR help! >_< (starts climbing over)
Sharkskin: "Oaf?!" "OAF?!" (cuts Conchobar's rope as he's climbing over!)
Conchobar: EEGAHHHHHHHH (smashes into the Man's Promise's hull, and into the water)
Shark: (takes a bite out of gnome)
Round Three or So
Ro: (continues valiantly fighting the Pellaens)
Grue: (starts nonlethal fighting against the Pellaens)
Sandara: (tries her best to support)
John: (climbs to the crow's nest, starts summoning a stirge. "Yay, first level!")
Conchobar: (is busy adding his own innards to the chum)
Sharkskin: Okay. The ship's ten feet away... I can do this. I've got a decent Acrobatics. It's DC 10.
Ro's Player: DC 20. You need a running start.
Sharkskin: Eh, whatever. I can do this! (rolls dismally low) D: (lands in the water)
Shark: (finishes off Conchobar)
Sharkskin's Player: I need a scribble. (writes "^w^" on a piece of paper) This is my face as Conchobar dies. =D
Round Four??
Ro and Sandara: (valiant fighting continues)
Grue: (valiant nonlethal fighting continues)
John: (stirge is summoned, summoning starts anew)
Sharkskin: (is attacked by the shark, who decides it wants seconds)
Shark: (is attacked by Sharkskin, who thinks it's the shark that took his leg years ago)
Blackey the Orca: (attacks the shark at John's request)
Round Five and Most of Six
Ro and Sandara: (valiant fighting continues)
Grue: (valiant nonlethal fighting continues)
John: (stirge is summoned, ponders climbing out of the crow's nest)
Sharkskin: (is attacked by the shark, and proceeds to get more of him torn off)
Blackey the Orca: (attacks the shark once in Round Five, then breaks off combat)
The party isn't exactly doing too well, and Sandara's healing channeling is also healing the unconscious Pellaen sailors, mostly because Grue was only knocking them out. Eventually, the captain of the Man's Promise comes out from below decks, and orders every member of the party killed (except Sandara; he has other intentions for her.)
Round Nineish
Ro: (cuts one of the lifeboats free and jumps in)
Sandara: (follows suit, avoiding three nonlethal opportunity attacks, channels)
Grue: (avoiding capture, jumps overboard from the aft. A bad idea in banded mail, but...)
Blackey the Orca: (jumps from the water and catches Grue)
John Fargloom: (jumps overboard from the crow's nest)
Sharkskin: (is shark chow, sorry bud)
More Derailed Than Amtrak: So now the party is adrift on a lifeboat or an orca. The Man's Promise is probably captured, and the fates of Rosie, Kroop, and Badger are uncertain.
At least it'll be interesting from here.
*First PC, anyway.
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I get a little more excited than i should when someome posts in this thread. Bring the demise at sea!
In my defense, I was at 0, surrounded by three pirates, and I don't get weapon finesse until second level so my to-hit was either +0 or -4/-4
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Roarin
Dwarf salt beard Brawler level 1
After shoving Patch out of crows nest and into the ocean during the big storm, Patch secretly plotted revenge. Two nights later patch slit the dwarfs throat ear to ear in his sleep. An investigation will commence shortly but its doubtful if the dirty dog who did the deed will ever be cought.
Character: Tapphy - Storm Druid eager new press-ganged pirate
Death: Ganged up by Plugg's henchment in the bilge.
Detail. After deciding not to wear his armor that day, and not to hide any weapons on his body, he is assigned to the bilge (which he's been several times before). This time plugg and scourge pat him down on the way and there are 2 of Plugg's cronies to 'help' him in his duties.
After they pick at him for being lazy they pull daggers on Tapphy. For some reason, the Druide decides to cast a trip spell which work but is easily recoverable. 2nd turn (after taking a hit) he finally casts fog to run but its too late. At level one he took 11 points and dies young, the murder being covered up by Plugg and Scourge as a terrible accident.
The cleric in the run I'm running was swallowed by the whale. Hero points meant they were able to pull his partially-digested ass out of there. But he wasn't in good shape.
When they got to the ship, there was another death, this one far more spectacular-Master Scourge. Our gunslinger had his pistol misfire. Not wanting to take a chance with it, he ditched the pistol for a bigger weapon-the Balista attached to the back of the ship. He grabbed it, swung it around, and fired, taking the Bosun down to zero. For effect, I had him get impaled,knocked from the sterncastle, and pounced him to the deck, ending the combat. It was fantastic
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I just ran through Bonewrack Isle with my party and the party (and the NPC crew) got a nice dent from it.
Name: Jack Scrimshaw
Race: Human
Class: Cleric (Undead Lord) 1 (NPC)
Book: The Wormwood Mutiny
Cause of Death: "Ghoul de grace"
Details: Upon reaching the Ship's Whore's tent, Bahram (An added NPC fromt he Wormwood), Jack and his skeleton, who the party took with them rushed the three ghouls who snuck up on one of the party members. Unfortunately, one of the ghouls got the paralysis off on Jack and finished the poor cleric off with the next attack.
Name: Bosun Rai
Race: Angelkin Aasimar
Class: Magus (Bladebound) 3
Book: The Wormwood Mutiny
Cause of Death: The Devilfish
Details: Upon entering the lair of the devilfish the party, who went in during high tide, were greeted with the devilfish's unholy blood effect. The party tried to retreat as quickly as they could, and the magus tried to cover their escape, The devilfish got a very high damage roll and instantly knocked out the Magus consuming her in the next round.
Name Bahram
Race: Human
Class: Aegis 1/ Soulknife (Shielded Blade) 1 (NPC)
Book: The Wormwood Mutiny
Cause of Death: The Devilfish
Details: The party entered the boss room and proceeded to engage the Whale who was quickly killed in the first round of combat with a lucky greataxe crit. leaving only the devilfish left to deal with. Bahram tried to engage the devilfish but provoked an attack of opportunity, in which the devilfish rolled high damage once again and then proceeded to crit with his savage bite, killing Bahram.
Name: Captain Galen
Race: Kitsune
Class: Sorcerer (Tattoo Sorcerer) 3
Book: Raiders of the Fever Sea
Cause of Death: "Ghoul Fever" (Killed by First Mate)
Details: After several near death experiences on Bonewrack Isle, Captain Galen was unable to stave off ghoul fever and in a last ditch effort to prevent himself from becoming a ghoul, the captain requested that his first mate end his life and hide his body before they left Rickety's Squibs.
Galen will be replaced by a Bigbe the Bloodrager, and Rai will be replaced by a Dragonrider, whose name is yet to be determined.
Hero Points saved this one. I know, I know, "Psst! Then its not a real obit..." Still.
Raiders of the Fever Sea.
Little Oppara, Taldas Isle (Isles of the Shackles p33)
Straddling Part 2 (Piracy on the Fever Sea) and Part 3 (The Lady of the Rock); The party has been to Tidewater Rock and are still raiding the sea to build infamy and coin.
They have made fairly thorough work of the Devil's Pallor (Event 12). From the back cover plot hooks from the Wormwood Mutiny, the party is pursuing the trail of the Lost Messenger, as set up here. The party has slowly towed the Devil's Pallor to Taldas Isle, after taking on a few more sailors, including the jeweler Liat Murks.
The PCs head out to the Hook as an overland day trip. I did not decide beforehand what the source of disappearing daredevils actually was. I had a player roll for an encounter, with a result of "1" meaning it was just the tide washing reckless victims away. (Just a 1 in 10 chance of no encounter as I figured a published plot hook should have an encounter behind it.) It wasn't a 1, so I had the player roll percentile dice. I compared that against the Mid-Level Ocean Encounters table on p79 of Raiders of the Fever Sea. The mid-70s result generated an encounter with a giant sea snake (Isles of the Shackles 59), a CR 7 encounter. They had recently leveled up to 5, so not a stretch. So there it was, a giant sea snake was lured by the occasionally roaming two-legged food to lair near the Hook.
It was a tough encounter, which was fine as they were cleaning up with the sailing encounters in Part 2 and are going back to that soon. They were hopping from rock to rock on slippery hindering terrain, getting farther from solid shore. The giant sea snake erupts out of the water to start picking people off. The party rogue/alchemist is a halfling, therefore 3 sizes smaller than the huge snake, making the halfling a valid Snatch target. He gets snatched up 15' in the air. After a few chomps, the halfling falls unconscious and is dropped in the water while the snake works on a new foe.
The new foe is the captain, a half-drow bard/cavalier.
Meanwhile, the halfling is attempting to stabilize while drowning. PC and NPC alike scramble to grab him out of the water in the round before he drowns. They manage to do so and he manages to stabilize at negative hit points. However, he fails against the snake's powerful venom. The CON loss results in negative healthy CON hitpoints; he succumbs to the poison.
2 Hero Points later, he is easily mistaken for dead, looking like Frodo after Shelob. Dogged applications of potions, wands and skill bring him back to the world of the living. He does not regain consciousness until the following day and cannot recall the trip back to town.
So he's alive but not out of the woods yet. Both he and the captain have lost from 5 to 7 points each off Dex and Con. They're hoping they can sail unmolested for a few days to heal up.
Yeah, right. ;-)
Name: Cutty
Race: Undine
Classes/levels: Shaman 5-6
Adventure: Tempest Rising
Location: A wreck in the Shackles
Catalyst: Captain Vakarla
The gore: Their ship got lured into the easy prey, managed to just get stuck in a shoal instead of crash into the reef. Vakarla and her wreckers appeared and the fight raged on. Cutty attempted to cast Hold Person on her, failed, and got rewarded with a Phantasmal Killer, which killed him. All on the table rolled the checks after the died, just for fun and no one wouldve survived, that spell was a killer (hur hur), but perhaps Cutty did spare his captain by irritating her enough (text mentions she saves the spell for the captain).
Davor the Red, 1/2-Orc Monk 5
Raiders of the Fever Sea
Featuring the Hu Hazhong, p24 Ships of the Inner Sea.
The Hu Hazhong was eastward-bound from the Arcadian Ocean, having just survived a storm and an encounter against some sea monster which claimed a life. They were destined for Avistan from Blood Cove and had granted the Shackles, the Eye and Mediogalt wide berth on account of credible rumours of non-profitable hazards. The sea monster had them adjust their itinerary a little.
Meanwhile, the players, still cutting their teeth and flexing new muscle as pirates, were giving the Shackles narrow berth for similar reasons while hunting down the rumour of the Buzzards Bounty (inside back cover of Wormwood Mutiny). They spy the junk and make chase.
The chase lasted days (best 2 out of 3 piloting contests resulted in a few ties) and the boarding attempt was lengthy. (Narava was winning a fair share of Upper Hands.) PC Captain Drakethorn lept aboard invisibly while the ships were briefly adjacent. He sneaked below decks and activated a feather token: anchor which he picked up in Little Oppara. Once that was done, the crew of Besmara's Booty could board at their leisure.
Davor the Red intimidated the crew with his leaping prowess. He was quickly flanked by
At that point,
The party still carried the day. In the aftermath, they were grieved to number Davor among the slain. Davor is one of Sandara's most favorite people ever. As he had 2 Hero Points available, he was able to allow her passionate administrations bring him back from the brink of Pharasma's Cradle.
I'm a player in a group running through the game. We decided to maroon Scourge and his lieutenants (Plugg was killed by a critical hit from one of my bombs) on Bonewrack Isle. After that, we went around for a bit, did some pillaging, and then it happened. We fought zombie Scourge. Our DM thought it'd be fun to throw a custom encounter at us, and well... you'll see how that ends up.
DM rolls to hit Brody Ironfist, our Gillmen Brawler. Nat 20, so Brody eats a crit. It's alright though. He's got like... 55 hit points. He'll live. Scourge doesn't roll great damage. The ghouls move up. One gets another crit. Brody has 4 hit points left. The lieutenants are busy trying to hit me (and failing), and the inquisitor heals Brody with a Cure Moderate. Scourge's turn comes around, and he goes for the kill. Not a crit, but takes Brody into the negatives, at I believe -6. We leave him for now, knowing it's like 10 rounds before he bleeds out. Then we all, including the DM, remember; Brody was flanked. Scourge gets sneak attack. 11 damage later, Brody is dead on the deck.
At this point I had to leave, so the rest of the story is second-hand. After this, Jake Finch (our Swashbuckler/Magus captain) toppled a ghoul lieutenant overboard and was turning to fight Scourge. Scourge whips a handaxe at Jake's back, for yet another crit. Jake has about 3 HP left. He moves in to fight, and Scourge fells him with his other handaxe. My Grenadier (an Alchemist/Gunslinger the DM built) goes b@%!~+*, as Jake was his best friend. I climb into the rigging to keep bombing, and Scourge follows me up. I manage to shove a bomb into his mouth and kick him down, killing him with yet another critical.
After the fight, we gathered our dead and brought them back to the ship. We set them aboard the Naughty Nymph (our lifeboat, also the dinghy that Jake and I showed up on), and prepared for a burial at sea. As we're mourning, Jake's player realizes he had a hit point error. He had 25 max hit points, but his minimum was 26. He lived through clerical error, but sadly we lost poor Brody.
Name of PC: Zarrnok of the Crashing Horde (aka Captain Yarrnok of the Quipper)
Class/Level: Hobgoblin Fighter 8
Adventure: Tempest Rising
Catalyst: Zarskia Galembar
Story: Between fly, haste, and greater invisibility, Zarskia had too many advantages for Zarrnok to survive. He burnt from fire bombs and then a formerly-surrended guardsman he had tried to kill finished him off.
Name of PC: Zarrnok of the Crashing Horde (aka Captain Yarrnok of the Quipper)
Class/Level: Hobgoblin Fighter 9
Adventure: Tempest Rising
Catalyst: Lightning elemental
Story: Coming into the home stretch of the regatta, a lightning elemental was attracted to the ship. Trusting his pilot to do her job and keep the Quipper on course, Captain Yarrnok rushed to fight the elemental. While his efforts were instrumental in killing it, he fell before it did.
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Oakrin "Wrinkles", aasimar warpriest of Besmara was my first player casualty in so long. Session two of the campaign, day five of the game: an intense game of heave proved his undoing. Luckily, the game also took out Jape, one of their most hated rivals. Our players couldn't stop laughing, and I even gave it a fifty percent chance of his living through it because he was blessed by Besmara... but in the end, he went to be with his goddess, in a way that most certainly made her proud: drinking himself to death.
Killed the party gunslinger, Juan Julio, last night. While most of the crew was underwater dealing with the Sahaugin-riding sharks, the gunslinger waited aboard,aiming the balista in case one surfaced. What he didn't notice was the canopy creeper. By the time the rest of the crew got into the fray it was already biting at him, and unfortunately they couldn't get to him in time. Also took down the rogue, but hero points brought her back.
So the captain of the ship during the storm got attacked by the 6 grindylows (they did the mutiny before the island). I rolled 3 twenties for three of them (I did the swift action trips first). So needless to say he died a gruesome death. Rest in Peace Kaoru the Chaotic Evil Bard! Cut-Throat Grok will mourn you when she hears the news of your passing.
Name of PC: Zarrnok of the Crashing Horde
Class/Level: Hobgoblin Fighter 9
Adventure: Island of Empty Eyes
Catalyst: cyclops guard
Story: Walking up to someone and critically threatening him before rolling a die is very harsh, particularly when you're wielding a greataxe.
Poor Poor Taphios got set up in the ...
Name: Azzir
Race: Tiefling
Class/Level: Magus 4/Bloodrager 2
Adventure: Raiders of the Fever Sea
Killed by: Kelloort
Interposing himself between the captain and the Sahuagin leader, while brave, ultimately led to his death. He was buried at sea. He had been carrying the ship's bell from Deathknell, so we will just have to see how that plays out...
Sound the bells, lads. The sea is not yet done claiming poor souls...
Witness first the death of a young would-be priest of Abadar, turned rogue (there's a story there...). Despite a nasty bout with reefclaws which lowered the poor sod's health, he insisted on staying up through the night to make friends aboard the Wormwood. His weakness was preyed upon as a couple of brigands ambushed him alone in the bilges.
The would-be leader of the press-ganged lubbers would be next to fall. Despite a grand show during boarding practices under the watchful eye of Riaris Krine, Vinata Valdemar would prove to be less dextrous during the -actual- boarding routine against the Man's Promise. After ensuring his group passed over, Mister Valdemar himself fell off of the ropes, into the water. His thrashing quickly summoned a shark.. then another, and another, until it was a veritable feeding frenzy.
Oddly enough, Vinata has returned, meeting his fellows on the damned Bonewrack Isle. If the orc bullyboy who met him at the shore is to be believed, he was dropped off by a ghostly ship captained by a very striking female pirate...
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Character: Captain Johnny 'Sails' Black
Class/Race/Level/etc: Human Swashbuckler 'Inspired Blade' 5
Module: Raiders of the Fever Sea
Cause: Charm Person
Details:
The intrepid crew of the Nemo had recently captured the Captain of the Famished Mane during it's attempted action against the Ulfen pirate ship Vorksfang. As a result and hoping for better treatment the 'survival' oriented captain offered information on the shipping route and timetable of the Dowager Queen.
After dealing with a Sahuagin attack on Tidewater Rock the Nemo set out to capture the Dowager Queen and what was promised to be decent plunder. Unfortunately for them the DM, having six players and a Duergar Barbarian who seems quite capable of one-shotting everything, decided to make the Captain of the Dowager Queen a fourth level bolt ace with a sailmaster who was a fourth level sorcerer... who just happened to have charm person on his list of spells.
After a brief tousle with the Dowager Queen at range the ship borne combat began. At first the party seemed on course to once again crush all resistance. Both Balthor (said duergar) and the Captain charged onto the enemy deck as they were prone to do.
Unfortunately with one hit point remaining the sailmaster cast charm person on the Duergar. A save of natural 1. He immediately told Balthor that he had been captured by pirates and ensorcered to serve them and to kill his allies.
An opposed charisma check of 2 versus 21 resulted in the tides turning quite quickly.
Balthor charged Captain Black and critted the swashbuckler for 63 points of damage. Luckily due to my card system one of the other players cashed in his cards to save Sails.
Before it was all over Sails would once again be hit to near death by the barbarian before the party wizard cast charm person on one of the Chelish Marines and had him attack Balthor, breaking the enchantment and saving the crew.
Character: Captain Finnegan Mourn (Dhampir UnRogue 6)
Module: Fever Sea
Cause: Canopy Creeper
The officers of the Nightstorm decided to approach Mancatcher Cove overland to scout it out. All went well until the alchemist decided to take a sample of the strange vines hanging over the cove, and the creeper lashed out with some exceptional dice rolls.
One beak crit later the captain was decapitated.
Not quite a death, but I felt it was worth pointing out.
2 TWF characters ended up getting confused by animate dreams-the rogue and the fighter. They ended up hitting each other quite a bit, and the fighter was hitting harder. The captain ordered Sandara to hold person the fighter so he wouldn't kill the rogue. Rogues turn comes, she attacks him-oops! Sneak attack dropped the fighter to 2 points from dying. Ouch. Rogue then beat herself till she passed out
Razmira, sulijann sorceress 6
Module: From Shore to Sea (plugged into Raiders of the Fever Sea)
Cause: full attack from the desperate aboleth, Mohl'Omog.
The group have solved the mystery of Nal-Keshel (positioned off the coast near Jula in the Sodden Lands). They found and liberated dominated townsfolk and their own captured crew, including Scrimshaw Jack. Captain Firix, 1/2 Drow, suspected from the very beginning
On the nearby cursed island, the group found Samms Toppin's husband in an alien cave, turned into a skum and dominated by some force. Razmira, having previously shrugged off an impulse to turn on her companions, suspected the group missed something on the way and turned back to find it. She did:
Two hero points allowed her to be recovered from the mess, though still in trouble from her condition.