Name: Aurvik
Race: Dwarf
Class: Barbarian 4
Adventure: Shards of Sin
Location: Sihedron Shrine(I think)
Catalyst: KO'd by Shriezyx(-4 hp)
Name: Mac
Race: Clockwork Servant
Adventure: Shards of Sin
Location: Sihedron Shrine(I think)
Catalyst: Destroyed by Shriezyx
The Gory Details:
The party entered the room, slightly worn and out of offensive/fire spells(lack of a true blaster & coming from a protracted combat chasing Khrysm). One of the shriezyx critical failed its initial attack and webbed the other.
The unhindered shriezyx and the raging(low ac) barbarian get to beating each other, with the barbarian eventually falling. He is immediately revived by the life oracle's channeling and supported by the party's fighter. The shriezyx then falls to the combined effort.
Mac, the activated clockwork, stalled and weakened the hindered shriezyx with some assistance from the witch's debuffing. It was damaged beyond repair about the time the first shriezyx was cut down.
The first proper deaths in my running of Shattered Star (I don't count 'that trap' as a proper death all in all), and it's a TPK! Furthermore, it would seem like it is one that has not been mentioned yet.
Name: Niramour the Pure
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Monk (Martial Artist) 9
Name: Gary the Elf
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Oracle (Elven Loremaster) 9
Name: Treacle
Race: Tengu
Classes/levels: Rogue(swordmaster) 9
Name: Brunsk (Cohort to Gary the Elf)
Race: Human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: Barbarian (Physical Exemplar, Invulnerable Rager) 7
Adventure: The Asylum Stone
Location: The Hanging Manse, Beranin's Workshop (A23)
Catalyst: Berkanin, Kanya, Petey, Clockwork Soldiers, and those Black Tentacles
The Gory Details
The Set-up: The party has just made their way through most of the manor. Kanya, after taking some slight damage, has decided to retreat early after seeing the monk take out Herifax with one round of flurrying punches. She drank an invisibility potion and climbed up the wall into the workshop, entering through the open roof, while the party stood still and ready in case this was just a re-position tactic on her part. As they realize she's not coming back, they tie Herifax up in the bedroom, heal themselves, and then charge up the stairs. However Berkanin has had about a minute's warning at this point from Kanya, enough to cast her minute/level spells that he hasn't cast already from when he heard the combat outside (so in addition to Mage Armor and Protection from Arrows and False Life he has Blue and Invisibility up), and flies up to one of the corners of the workshop. Kanya, still invisible, hides in the corner behind the stairs. The clockworks are positioned hear the left wall, close within threatening range of the stairs, and Petey is on the top of the bottom wall.
The Battle: Initiative starts as there are two PCs on the stairs and two on the ground behind them. Berkanin delights in new toys, and the constructs win initiative, stepping forward and getting some early hits on the monk with their halberds (A +18 mod is easy to hit PCs with). The monk, tengu, and cohort move into the room, carefully avoiding AoOs from the constructs, which is tricky and the cohort does have to provoke one to get into the room proper, but they are able to destroy one clockwork soldier on their round. Before walking up the stairs, the oracle casts invisibility purge and then walks into the room. It reveals Kanya, but as the oracle is in the centre of the room, it doesn't reveal Berkanin flying high at the room's corners. Berkanin casts Haste on himself and the constructs (Kanya is too far), and Kanya is able to move to flank the oracle and does a devestating sneak attack on him. The constructs attack again doing more damage, particularly a blow to the oracle who bleeds and falls unconcious on his turn. The party does little damage to the clockwork as they concentrate on taking out Kanya and feeding the oracle a potion, both of which they succeed at. Then Berkanin's turn comes around and he filled the room with Black Tentacles. And the tide turns. Without the ability to five-foot-step and flurry in the terrain, the monk's damage is massively lessened, while the other party members are continually grappled. From there Berkanin does not cast any more spells as the Black Tentacles grappled and slowly damage the party, finishing off anyone who falls unconcious in them, and the remaining clockwork is whittled at but is much more effective at whittling down the party. Eventually, after two party members were completely dead, the cohort at under 20 HP, and the oracle hopelessly grappled and unable to do anything, we just called it because Berkanin could've killed them twice over if he'd been casting additional spells.
The future: I added the Aspis consortium as an emerging rival to gathering the shards and the glory of Magnimar. A group of mercenaries, hired to tail the pathfinders in Kaer Maga, follow them to the next shard and ambush them to retrieve all of them, is going to have to investigate why the party entered the Hanging Manse and never returned. There they will find a crazed Ardoc brother with very few defenses left, and the shards, and all the pathfinders notes on them.
So far everyone in my group except for a player who left at the end of the first book have lost at least one character. Losses so far have been:
A cleric, wizard and... fighter I think, who's names/races I don't remember, as they died so long ago. Lost to water spiders early in the exploration of the Crow due to some bloody poor tactics on the part of the players (who'd have thought that burning hands-ing your own party is a terrible idea...)
A dhamphir rogue (also dead in the Crow), who was knocked unconscious... so they dumped him in the positive energy charged pool to try and heal him. Player didn't want to keep the character since he seemed to be a spider venom magnet, so I ruled that it killed him outright due to his weakened state.
Zogalypse the human Sorcerer, died from spider bites in the Crow (there was a lot of that going around at the time). Only a temporary death, I took pity on the new player and let them call in favours to get a reincarnation earlier than it'd normally be available... came back as a Kitsune.
Most recently... Kiara the Archer. Died after taking a critical hit from the Boggard Chief in Curse of the Lady's Light... and rolling near max damage. Failed to stabilize two rounds in a row, which was enough to put her down. Said chief almost managed to do the same to the paladin the following round (double crit, woo!), but thankfully his reign of terror was ended before that could happen.
So.. I just had a TPK-2, where two of my eight PCs lived. Only two. Yes, I'm running the campaign with 8 players. Yes I'm insane.
Luckily, they're all Test PCs, and I'm just running them through my heavily modified encounters before my real group gets to them. My real group is at Zograthy, having thus far only had the Paradox Box Encounter, complete with four not-so-deadly-but-hilarious traps, two Pugwampis, two Advanced Grimples named Billy and Jimbo, and two Tooth Fairies.
Anyways, the campaign runs a bit different than the standard Shattered Star, mainly because its in an alternate timeline known as Ruins of Pathfinder (Thought up by Robert Brookes, RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, and a player in this particular campaign), where the players are instead working for a reawakened Karzoug as part of the Cyphermages, who have since replaced the Pathfinders in the Empire of Shalast. I would also like to add that the Reign of Winter has set in, causing severe blizzards and cold fronts across the Inner Sea (We're working on saving the world from that in another campaign, don't worry).
Anyhoo, the details! (My players STAY OUT!)
Name: The Bloodrager, The Brawler, The Gunslinger, The Inquisitor, The Rogue, The Wizard
Race: All Human (Various Ethnicities)
Classes/levels: Infernal Bloodrager 2, Brawler 2, Pistolero Gunslinger 2, Inquisitor of Lissala 2, Trapsmith Rogue 2, Wrath Sin Specialist Wizard 2
Adventure: Shards of Sin
Location: The Crow's Nest, the Marshalling room
Catalyst: The Tower Girls. And their little rats, too.
The Gory Details: In my test run of the modified campaign, I attempt to have my Test PCs go through the worst case scenarios - they're not subtle, they're not sneaky, and they take the worst possible routes. You know, in case my actual players do the same thing.
Well, having assaulted the Crow's nest in broad daylight, after having spent a week recouperating from the slaughterhouse that was Natalya's fortress of sewage (After which Terisha escaped, tracked them down, and warned her gang of their abilities), the PCs basically rang the doorbell and announced their arrival.
After having killed the first set of Tower Girls (A fight that Sasha escaped from, rejoining the main group), the PCs waltzed right into an ambush in the marshalling room.
It was a CR 9 fight, even with the three separate waves of enemies. Faced with a full gang of afflicted wererat rogues and their trained, advanced dire rats, the group lasted a mere six rounds before they were finally overwhelmed by rats, snipers, and the Bloodrager having been caught on fire by the heavily modified Karisa.
Although the Bloodrager was the only one to actually -die- during the encounter proper (He enraged, used hellfire strike, his Blood Reservoir of Physical Prowess and charged in, only to get hit by an Explosive Bomb, surrounded by rats and not caring to try and put himself out), the other five were knocked unconscious, captured and later killed when the leader of the Magnimar Cyphermages wouldn't pay their ransom. The Bloodrager, however, went out in style, by 1-shotting two of the lieutenants (Sasha and Karisa), before being bitten to unconsciousness and burning to death while bleeding out. Sadly, both lieutenants ended up surviving, if only barely.
The Alchemist and Fighter, the sole survivors, plan on recruiting new allies and assaulting the Crows Nest (covertly this time), in order to regain their lost Shard of Pride, their allies' gear, and revenge.
I can only pray for them when they encounter the Mites. Hue hue hue.
Oh no! The Dread Gazebo! :D
Name: Ritter
Race: Human (I think)
Classes/levels: Rogue 4 (sniper) / Druid 6 (reincarnated druid) - some "moves faster" archetype for his heavily armored turtle animal companion that he has kitted out wearing a spiked mithral breastplate for an AC of 35!
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: A22
Catalyst: overconfidence
The Gory Details: For some bizarre reason, Ritter was incredibly overconfident in his ability to succeed on Fortitude saving throws. His solo nighttime assassination attempt of Sufestra instead resulted in becoming a lawn ornament the moment he earth glided into A22 from the outside. 10 hours later, his wild shape expired, with results the player is not yet aware of having happened due to the timing of subsequent game play. He was forced to play his beloved Turtle (Soup IV) for the remainder of the session.
Okay so First Ever TPK for my group
So...
Races: Halfling, Human, Half-Orc, Cat Folk
Classes: Wizard, Ranger, Cleric of Groetus, Rouge all lvl 4
Adventure: Shards of Sin
Location: D15 The Sihedron Shrine
Catalyst: Under prepared/Overconfident/Angry Sheirzek
The Gory Details:
The party had just finished clearing out the derros from the last level of the crow and found the secret passage down to the shrine. When confronted with the two Shirezeks (sp?) they quickly went on the offensive. Dealing several solid blows to the monsters. But sadly they were manuvered into a flanking position and one by one were pinned and shredded. Until only one was left, the ranger who sent his raven to grab the shard and make a run for it only to be brought low by a lucky critical from the shizrek (sp?) running up behind him as he was slowed by it's poison.
Sadly due to the group desireing to play a different path (Mummy's Mask) the two shards may now lay at the bottom of the crow for all time.
Oh well, at least that means that 'Oops, I accidently a tidal wave' won't happen.
Oh no! The Dread Gazebo! :D
The dreaded Gazebo.
EvilDustMan: time-honored technique is for your fighter to awaken drenched in sweat, clutching the aforementioned necklace in his meaty hands from the fiery nightmare.
A "party mulligan" if you will.
Name: Jack(I honestly forget his character name since this was session ONE
Race: Human
Class/Level: Brawler 1
Adventure: Shards of Sin
Loaction: Underbridge?
Catalyst: Poor rolls and being CL1
So, we're exploring where Natalya Vancaskerkin was "taken" (to our knowledge). Bow Fighter and I(Rogue) stay upstairs while the Brawler and the Cleric go down the ladder. I take the Ring of Feather Fall(best idea ever) and walk on the beams. They're rotted, I fall, combat begins! First two are dispatched with no issue. Enter two big burly level 2 Warriors. Jack gets smacked down in the first round by a pair of morningstars, leaving me to fend for myself with our healer while our bowman rained arrows from above. Being a lowly Rogue without Weapon Finesse, I wasn't hitting often, and their attacks dropped me close to death once. In the heat of battle, we saw Jack taken to another room where he bled to death.
Name: Cal, Huntmistress #2, and Corysis
Race: Elf, Drow, Human
Class/Level: Monk 15, Ranger 13, Sorcerer 15
Adventure: Into The Nightmare Rift
Location: the Core
Catalyst: Mesmalatu the horrid awakened demi lich cleric of Nyarlathotep
Had a near TPK this time, first one that has come close in this AP.
So the party first fought the dhole, and drove it off without too much badness. The cleric of Desna got manhandled but survived -- the dhole bit her and was prepared to swallow her, but she just activated her freedom's call aura and slipped away. Once that battle was won, the party then bent its efforts on smashing the abysium reactor -- they spent much magic (for energy resistance) while smashing the thing, and eventually they did. They healed up just in time to see the grand hall doors open and to see a floating bejeweled skull enter the room. "That doesn't look so bad," the monk comments.
In the ensuing battle, Mesmalatu blasted Xaivanshee with her soul drain attack, but Xaivanshee managed to survive with only the two negative levels (yay). Mesmalatu slew one of the drow huntresses (drow of course were allies of the party) with the first Wail of the Banshee, but everyone else in range managed the save. The party slugged it out with her for a few rounds, making a bit of headway against her DR 20/-, but her second Wail would have slain the GMPC sorcerer -- he spent two hero points to be only at negative HP, and he was out of the fight. The second Wail did slay the monk, who muffed his save.
(The barbarian made the save only because he had a reroll (from the luck blade, which they managed to get by banishing the efreet in book 4) and that reroll sufficed. Had he not had the luck blade on him, he would have died and it would have been one cleric, Xaivanshee, and one huntmistress.. no way to teleport away readily, and several rounds of fleeing while within 300' line-of-effect from the demi lich. So arguably, the luck blade saved a very likely TPK!)
In the following rounds, the sorcerer's clockwork familiar climbed out of his haversack and fished out the last healing potion, and worked to feed it to his fallen master, while the party desperately summoned a greater fire elemental and tried to slug it out with the demi lich. Very soon after that the cleric calls out "this is getting out of hand! retreat!!"
The sorcerer's first act after awakening was to dim door over to the rest of the party (familiar hastily jumping back into the haversack), and as the demi lich prepared her next soul devour he cast greater teleport, and suddenly the lot of them (living only, except the monk) were in the Bazaar of Sails at noon, startling the passers-by.
They raised their dead, researched demi liches, rested and returned, and did away with the undead after much effort (and did the procedure to eliminate her remains). Quite the battle. I was not expecting the battle with the dhole to go easier than the battle with the demi lich. You can never tell.
Edit: huntmistress #1 snuffed it in there somewhere too. I think either the second or third Wail took her down. "Disposable," the charmed and then Quested Rift Drake from the giant steading above, survived only by dint of the cleric mercifully ordering it to flee the battle.
Run away! Run away! Nicely done with Mesmalatu. *Makes notes*
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Name: Violet Crumble
Race: Gnome
Classes/levels: Rogue 15
Adventure: Into the Nightmare Rift
Location: F7, Mesmalatu's Phylactery
Catalyst: turning right instead of left at Albuquerque
The Gory Details: After narrowly defeating the awakened demilich the first time around in E3, Our Heroes returned to their favorite city to sell piles of swag and pick up a few choice bits of loot. It took them a week. Which was several days too long. They made their way to the Temple of the Crawling Chaos.
Apparently she figured that "the boys got this" in dealing with the Gug Savant and four Gugs in F6, she turned right and read aloud the spiraled script in Aklo on the wall in F5.
*Schlorp* Off she goes into F7, Mesmalatu chillin' out, her beloved Leng Spider lurking above.
*Schlorp* The sorry rogue blew her initiative check and the subsequent Fortitude save against the dreaded devour soul attack, her remains crumbling into mush. Sadly, the one and only fatality of the campaign that wasn't thwarted by Hero Point expenditures.
She did get better...
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Name: Snickers
Race: Human (Varisian)
Classes/levels: Fighter (two-handed weapon) 15
Adventure: Into the Nightmare Rift
Location: F9, The Great Temple to the Crawling Chaos
Catalyst: player amnesia against Cadrilkasta
The Gory Details: Snickers' amnesia was manifested by forgetting that he had a ring of evasion against several DC 30 supernatural 1.21 gigawatt draconic storm bolts,compounded by making the mistake of permitting the blinged-out blue wyrm to prosecute a full-round attack with extreme prejudice after moving adjacent to her.
Her full-round attack plummeted him to -45 hit points (well below his 16 Con), although the ever-crafty players combined efforts to resuscitate him to a total of 150 hp via breath of life and heal. I'll take a temporary character death when the PC in question had ZERO Hero Points.
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Name: Zoll Swiftblade
Race: Elf
Class/Level: Rogue 2
Adventure: Shards of Sin
Location: Mustering Area on The Crow's 3rd Floor
Catalyst: Too Many Tower Girls at the end of an adventuring day
This could have been a TPK but fortunately for the group only one death occurred. The rest were knocked unconscious and ransomed back along with the shard to the Pathfinder Society. The group had tripped the alarm on the fourth floor and Tellavee was able to scurry down to the third floor and muster seven gang members and Karisa with her donkey rats. Karisa warned the party that they should leave but when Gar, the group's barbarian threatened them with his Sarissa while carrying two previously defeated and unconscious Tower Girls over his shoulders, the moment to parlay had past.
They were able to hold their own for a little while, killing all but one of the donkey rats and one of the Tower Girls, but the numbers just overwhelmed them and soon Argus, the party's Cleric of Sarenrae was surrounded with his back against a wall. He fought valiantly and was the last to fall. While Gar and Argus, a divine hunter, were able to stabilize as the fight dragged (Argus was out of channels as the group's resources were pretty low when the fight occurred), Zoll could not.
Ayala was pleased with her gang's performance and even happier when, through her contacts in Magnimar, she found out that they had captured Pathfinders. It cost Sheila Heidmarch a lot of gold to get her Pathfinders and the Shard back. How much gold? Enough for the Sczarni Gang to relocate to much nicer digs than The Crowe, that's for sure. Between that and Zoll getting raised, the group is into the Pathfinder Society for a lot of money while having nothing left but their weapons and armor to show for their trouble this past week. The Society is garnishing 25 percent of their wages until they are paid back.
The only silver lining is our group uses a "Coming Back from Death" chart because we don't like that death, especially at higher levels, is usually, at worst, an economic speed bump. There are 99 bad things (varying from very penal to just funny) that you can roll on the chart and one good thing. Zoll hit the 1 percenter and came back one level higher as he has obviously been marked for greatness by his Goddess, Calistria.
Any chance of posting/linking to that chart? :)
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Name: Snickers
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Two-Handed Fighter 16th
Adventure: The Dead Heart of Xin
Location: Xin's audience chamber
Catalyst: A 16 CON is insufficient for a meat shield at this level of play.
The Gory Details: Dread Wraiths slurped his Constitution to zero in a single round. Result: dead Fighter.
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Name: Professor Reidod Heggikrek
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Earth Elementalist Wizard L7
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: M3: Sorshen's Boudoir
Catalyst: The group's Bloodrager failing her save against a Confusion spell
The Gory Details: During the confrontation against Ashamintallu, most members of the party failed their save against the opening Confusion spell.
Sadly for Professor Heggikrek, that included the group’s Bloodrager.
Sadly, she rolled “attack nearest target”.
Sadly, Professor Heggikrek was the nearest target.
Sadly, the Bloodrager rolled a critical hit and a regular hit against him… for a total of 92 points of damage.
Ouch.
On the bright side, the professor had enough Hero Points left to turn this into a mere near-death experience, so he can continue on with the campaign.
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Name: Nacria Derhexi
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Bloodrager L7
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: L25: Sorshen's Great Secret
Catalyst: Evil dice
The Gory Details: Two of the three Babaus focused their attacks on the group’s Bloodrager, who not only was less armored than the other warriors of the party, but was inflicting more damage due to her celestial bloodline. Alas, the dice favored the forces of evil that day, and after suffering many wounds, Nacria was brought below 0 hit points… her rage ended… and she died. :(
Here too, Nacria had enough Hero Points left to turn this into a mere near-death experience, so she can continue on with the campaign.
Name: Professor Reidod Heggikrek
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Earth Elementalist Wizard L7
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: M3: Sorshen's Boudoir
Catalyst: The group's Bloodrager failing her save against a Confusion spell
The Gory Details: During the confrontation against Ashamintallu, most members of the party failed their save against the opening Confusion spell.
Sadly for Professor Heggikrek, that included the group’s Bloodrager.
Sadly, she rolled “attack nearest target”.
Sadly, Professor Heggikrek was the nearest target.
Sadly, the Bloodrager rolled a critical hit and a regular hit against him… for a total of 92 points of damage.
Ouch.On the bright side, the professor had enough Hero Points left to turn this into a mere near-death experience, so he can continue on with the campaign.
Hey Moonbeam!
I fondly remember this fight with my group too and how many problems confusion caused to them. Lost the barbarian to it (see above in the thread), which turned into an incredible race against Ashamintalu all throughout the dungeon so the group could recover his body and the loot!
Any chance you're doing a journal for this campaign? :)
Name: Jasper Kandamerus
Race: Originally human, currently half-orc
Classes/levels: Evangelist Cleric of Pharasma (originally Groetus)
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: K9 - A spurned consort
Catalyst: Gnaeus Gnaru, male dhampir magus 8 with a critical Vampiric touch via Spellatrike
The Gory Details: Jasper joined the party as a guide to Mushfens and since the party made his head clearer with Heal, he regained his faith to Pharasma. The damphir magus had badly wounded Zakhasta le Brann, the party's face/tank/dps, and Jasper moved in to strike the villain down only to meet a critical spellstrike seasoned with a Vampiric touch.
Jasper went down, but bought Zakhasta enough time to strike Gnaeus Gnaru the killing blow. Pharasma greeted his lost servant and gave him back his ability to prepare spells. Jasper woke up at Maroux's hut as a half-orc, seeing a glimpse of an Osprey flying out of the window.
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I fondly remember this fight with my group too and how many problems confusion caused to them. Lost the barbarian to it (see above in the thread), which turned into an incredible race against Ashamintalu all throughout the dungeon so the group could recover his body and the loot!
Any chance you're doing a journal for this campaign? :)
Hi :)
Yes, I remember that epic fight in your campaign, and I even re-read this encounter in your journal to see how you had handled it, in preparation. ;)
Sorry, no journal this time around, though!
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Name: Viole(n)t Crumble
Race: Gnome
Classes/levels: Gatling Gun ... er, ranged Rogue 19th
Adventure: "Chapter 7"
Location: Sorshen's Mastaba: Arboretum & Menagerie (upper level)
Catalyst: a Grim Reaper
The Gory Details of a Technical Character Death: The ever-intrepid, ever-carnivorous 'gatling gun' rogue was the last PC to descend by way of rapid deceleration into the Grim Reaper's presence. Between falling damage and a failed saving throw against the big chap's wail of the banshee, she had no alternative but to use a hero point to save her bacon. Sadly, she was successful - but without it, she would surely have been slain, harvested by the Grim Reaper to provide his toll out of eons of boredom in Sorshen's hidey-hole.
Turin: was that your home-brew continuation, or did you get the maps/information from another source?
Turin: was that your home-brew continuation, or did you get the maps/information from another source?
This is me at my most dangerous/in my best form. Prepared stat blocks, improvising the rest. As-written, Shattered Star wraps up at 17th-18th level. With Viole(n)t Crumble being a brand-new player, the group felt it would be a crying shame to not attain the peak of Gatling Gun-ness for someone's first D&D/Pathfinder character. The result is a home-brewed "Chapter 7".
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I can't help it.
Name: Sorshen
Race: Azlanti and then some
Classes/levels: Runelord of Lust
Adventure: "Chapter 7"
Location: Boudoir
Catalyst: perfect coordination by the players
The Gory Details: She went from full hp to dead in six seconds on round 8.
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Name: Shalladin
Race: aasimar
Classes/levels: Warpriest 5 of Gorum
Adventure: 1.5 Dawn of the Scarlet Son (inset module between parts 1 & 2)
Location: outside abandoned shrine
Catalyst: only good PC in the party (CG alignment) - half-fiend smite good ability
The Gory Details: The party had captured Zadendi in a modified skill challenge who then led them back to the Saerenrae shrine. Scarlet Son opened the battle with an unholy blight which pinpointed the aasimar as the only good aligned target (failed his save and was sickened). Scarlet Son then targeted that PC with smite good ability. Battle lasted 10 rds - party barbarian was only one who could get past DR (no magic weapons in the party) and he rolled 2 nat 1's in the battle.
Name: Voltlo
Race: Gnome
Class Bloodlust Wizard 6
Adventure: curse of the lady's light
Catalyst: the trap
Details: With half the group still up fighting the carytid columns, the ranger and gnome made their decent down the shaft. He was a greedy bastard so didn't want to wait for the others and instead tried to steal the jewelry from the coffin. He also enjoyed slitting throats of prisoners and enemies that surrendered, so he had a long list of "innocent kills". Well the sadness of the friends and families of those killed was to much for him to bear, so he committed suicide. He pulled out a wand of magic missile and stabbed himself in the chest with it. He then whispered the commanding words and a barrage of missiles tore him apart from the inside.
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Name: Leoria Ralkantus
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Warpriest L10
Adventure: The Asylum Stone
Location: C4, Stables
Catalyst: Evil dice
The Gory Details: Leoria's pretty decent armor class of 28 was of no use in this encounter, since the Pale Stranger's attacks resolved against her touch AC of 12.
Over its six attacks, the Pale Stranger got 3 confirmed critical hits and 3 regular hits.
Leoria took a total of 202 points of damage, exactly double her current hit points.
Some background. The party had been a little slow in the assault on Windsong Abbey. While they defeated most of the ground floor enemies, the council chamber and bath had yet to be cleared. Since they hadn't exactly been stealthy in the assault, I had the enemies upstairs slightly prepared, redcap and hill giant already returned to flesh, Sufestra invisibly using channel energy to heal the undead before she retreated behind the Vrocks. Standing before the hallway bridge the party decided to all close their eyes completely and let the zen archer spend ki to flurry the medusa to death before engaging any other opponents seriously. It did not turn out well.
Name: Damiir Greycastle
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Oracle L12
Adventure: The Doomsday Door
Location: A20ish
Catalyst: Keeping eyes closed while attacked by Vrocks with spores and stun.
The Gory Details: Though he attempted to fight and cast offensively, the reach of the Vrocks and being unable to see them caused no effect to his opponents while he was whittled away to dying, where spore vines finished him off.
Running out of ki and no longer able to fire without seeing her target, the Zen Archer opened her eyes hoping to finish the medusa off and was relieved to see that, 60' away, she wasn't at risk of the gaze attack and told the rest of the party they could open their eyes to attack the Vrocks. Unfortunately at this point the medusa realized she was very low on health and unable to heal faster than she was damaged.
Name: Arrow on the Wind
Race: Shoanti Human
Classes/levels: Monk (Zen Archer) L12
Adventure: The Doomsday Door
Location: A20ish
Catalyst: Cornered low health Medusa
The Gory Details: Without much to lose and most of the party's eyes open, the Medusa moved forward and stared the Archer down, turning her to stone. Technically not a death, as she later survived the stone to flesh effect of the stone salve.
And then, since the Medusa was now close enough...
Name: Alex Dusthand
Race: Half-elf
Classes/levels: Bard (Archeologist) L10 (Cohort)
Adventure: The Doomsday Door
Location: A20ish
Catalyst: Low rolls on Fort saves
The Gory Details: First they became petrified. Then they failed the fort save to survive de-petrification.
One party member dead, two stone, the witch was still confused and the two Vrocks very healthy with many mirrored images it looked a near TPK. But the half-Orc fighter braved two AoOs to reach the medusa and a solid attack connected and killed her. The Vrocks, their mission no longer valid, teleported back to Ardathnatos to report. With two scrolls of raise dead in hand and two stone salves in addition to the medusa's and plenty of diamond dust they recovered fairly well all things considered. The only lasting wound is a negative level on the Oracle and Archeologist. Still very narrowly a TPK.
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Wow, this thread has been pretty quiet lately!
Here's a new one...
Name: Izelu Pirettio
Race: Human (Varisian)
Class/level: Alchemist 12
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: D2: Underground library
Catalyst: Failing both saves against Ricle Peakes' Phantasmal Killer.
Fortunately, using Hero Points, Izelu survived this "minor setback" and will continue his adventuring career.
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Name: Maddeva
Race: Half-Elf
Class/level: Sorcerer 5
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: K19 Alchemy Lab
Catalyst: Trying to move potions before identifying them
After determining that there were seven magical potions in the room, Maddeva decided to try to identify what potions they were. However, she felt that, due to the possibility of a trap, they should move the flasks to another room so that she could handle each of them. She asked the dwarven monk to take them and he opted to carry all of them at once. Thus, the containers were jostled and thus all three of them exploded, killing the sorcerer and wounding both the dwarven monk and gnome cleric.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Name: Vadaam
Race: Sylph
Class/level: Rogue 3/Wizard 1
Adventure: Shards of Sin
Location: D15 in Ancient Sewers
Catalyst: Shriezyx
The party (Vadaam plus a brawler, alchemist, and hunter)throws open the door to the shrine to see the two shriezyx come to life and menace at them. I roll terrible initiative for the monsters and the PCs decide to try and hold the door, so the front liners get webbed for their hesitation. Vadaam chooses to dart into the room and grab the shard, but ends up within a 5 foot step of one of the shriezyx - the other one being occupied trying to eat the party alchemist with his nasty fire. None of the shriezyx had attacked in melee yet so the PCs didn't know how nasty they are. Vadaam is hit with all 5 attacks, with the final attack scoring a crit. That put him past -Con. We are playing with hero points so he was able to two point himself out of the death, but the encounter was nearly a TPK - only the brawler and the hunter's AC (dinosaur) were up by the end, and the brawler was in single digits.
Very solid and challenging end battle for adventure 1.
Name: Ylderic Daedelon
Race: Elan
Class/Level: Arcanist 10/Archmage 4
Adventure: The Asylum Stone (Mythic)
Location: The Black Keep
Catalyst: Party greed
Nothing terribly sexy about the details. The party just survived a near TPK battle with the Dark Rider and his various minions. Rather than leaving the Black Keep with the shard, they decided to go through all of the rooms to search for loot. Little did they know that there were mythic Mohrgs still waiting in a side room. They opened the door, everyone has to save against mythic circle of death, not once, but twice. The ranger's owl companion dropped dead and the arcanist missed his second save. Unfortunately, mythic mohrgs raise their victims as fast zombies, so he jumps up and starts biting the other adventurers. They didn't hesitate to hack his moving corpse to bits. It was quite a showing of murder hoboism. They'll probably rez him at some point, but he has some nice new scars from his friends to remind him of the event. They completed the module with the arcanist still dead.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Name: Kaldan
Race: Kobold
Class/level: Hunter 11
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: A9 Gate house
Catalyst: Roy Flaxbeater
Scythe criticals are a heck of a thing. Poor kobold went from full to way past -Con in a single hit. He got better, as is normal at these levels.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Apparently adventure 4 is rough on my PCs:
Name: Daryn
Race: Human
Class/level: Oracle 12(Dark Tapestry)
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: Dungeon level 3
Catalyst: Sinspawn rangers
Daryn learned a valuable lesson about wandering to the front when he ended up pincushioned by rangers with Favored Enemy: Human, and human bane arrows. The last shot took him from single digit hp, but up, to past -20. Not all the apocalypse monsters want to be your friend, Daryn.
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Name: Leoria Ralkantus
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Warpriest 16
Adventure: The Dead Heart of Xin
Location: B4
Catalyst: Too many failed Reflex saves.
The Gory Details: The party had figured out that Ogonthunn was an enemy and began a fight made very complex due to the multiple illusory walls behind which the veiled master could hide and cast spells. Valiantly, the party was able to badly hurt the monster: it was down to only 6 hit points before fleeing back to B4.
From that hiding place, while the party was trying to locate it, coming from B5, Ogonthunn used a Mass Suggestion to convince two party members to “return from whence they came” (i.e. Magnimar)… Alas, those two were the main damage dealers in the party, and they carried the Sihedron.
Knowing that Ogonthunn was very close to death, the rest of the group chose to chase it into B4, where they fought the clockwork golems, with Ogonthunn hanging back and casting spells. Leoria took some serious damage from the golems’ melee attacks, and yet more damage when one of them exploded upon death, so when she was targetted by a Chain Lightning from Ogonthunn, it proved too much and she was dropped to 1 HP shy of her negative constitution. Unfortunately, her turn came up right after Ogonthunn’s, so she failed to stabilize before her team-mates could do anything to help her.
On the bright side, she miraculously survived thanks to using 2 Hero Points. Her unconscious body was carried out when the party made a hasty retreat (yes, they failed to kill the dastardly veiled master), but she’ll be able to accompany them when they return for a rematch.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Windsong Abbey continues to bring the killing:
Name: Daryn
Race: Human
Class/level: Oracle 12(Dark Tapestry)
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: Dungeon level 4
Catalyst: Greater shadows
Name: Vadaam
Race: Sylph
Class/level: Wizard 3/Rogue 3/Arcane Trickster 6
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: Dungeon level 4
Catalyst: Greater shadows
This batch of shadows apparently couldn't roll anything less than max damage with their strength attacks. It was a brutal fight that the party barely won. It didn't help that the shadows came out of the walls all around the party and the two PCs listed here both had 8 Strength scores. Many prestige points were spent to recover from this fiasco.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Daryn may officially be the dyingest character I've ever run for:
Name: Daryn
Race: Human
Class/level: Oracle 14(Dark Tapestry)
Adventure: Into the Nightmare Rift
Location: The Core
Catalyst: Ognathooga
The party decided to fly over the lake, staying about 60 feet up. Daryn and the party Brawler got caught in Ognathooga's breath weapon and both ended up confused. Daryn ended up having to attack his ally, and per confusion, was subject to the brawler's counterattack. Said return blow managed a critical hit on Daryn when he was at single digit hp.
The fight ranged all over the cavern and went for 18! rounds before the Mother of Oblivion retreated per her morale. The group made contact with the drow and successfully bargained with Lady Xaivanshee who restored Daryn to life.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Oh Daryn. It's almost sad at this point.
Name: Daryn
Race: Human
Class/level: Oracle 14(Dark Tapestry)
Adventure: Into the Nightmare Rift
Location: Embassy of Leng
Catalyst: Mesmalatu
It's literally one day after his previous death. The party made friends with Morcruft so they knew the skull had a crystal they wanted. They decided to deal with the skull first before investigating other rooms as it was a "known" quantity. The party barely ID'ed the demilich with a Knowledge(Religion) check - enough to know that it was a very ancient type of lich, but not enough to get any abilities. So when the party arcane trickster started taking her stuff, Mesmalatu woke up. After her first attempt to drain someone's soul, half the group decided to retreat. So about three party members were in range of wail of the banshee, of which Daryn was one. Then he rolled a natural 1 on his save. He melted like a Raiders of the Lost Ark Nazi.
Morcruft also crumbled to dust when a stray chain lightning took him to exactly 0.
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Race: Human
Classes/levels: Fighter 2 or 3... I can’t recall.
Adventure: Shards of Sin
Location: The Crow piling
Catalyst: Poor dice and a 180ft drop
The Gory Details: The party was attempting to reach the suspended platform and feared that the rope swing would be too challenging. After successfully aiding their Alchemist across the gap via climbing the horizontal suspension ropes, the fighter made his attempt. I (DM) clarified their precautions multiple times.
The fighter repeatedly told me he had the end of 180 ft of rope (placed next to the gap to allow Tower Gurls to climb up and down the outside of the piling) tied around his waist and no one in the party had made any indication they were bracing the rope. The DC was set at 10 for an unknotted rope.
The fighter rolled a 9 and the party shouted “good thing he has the rope!”
“Yes,” I said, calmly collecting d6s. “All 180ft of it.”
He belly flopped into the harbour below and began to sink, weighed down by his armour. The party recovered from their shock in time to remember that he has the John stone needed for the Shard they were seeking and went into recovery mode, sending their slow falling cleric and eidolon down to recover the body.
And at 50 ft underwater is where they met Lockerbie the Lacedon.
Thankfully only the eidolon has gone swimming so he was dispatched and the cleric climbed up to safety.
The party later recovered the body of their fallen friend in Lockerbie’s room but I had to spend several sessions assuring them I had a plan for retrieving the lost join stone.