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Name: Danae
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Sorceress 8th
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: The Ratter
Catalyst: Forgot to use Knowlegde skill
The Gory Details:
Of course, the monster made the saving throw sending back the horrific hallucinations and killing her instantly.
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Alright, reporting in again"
Name: Faunra of Kyotin and Roman Tashanna
Race: Elf and Human (Jadwiga)
Classes/levels: Ranger2/Sorc2 and Winter Witch 4
Adventures: The Shackled Hut
Location: The Woodwife's Plight cave
Catalyst: Finngarth and Gray Ooze
Roman was also the Ninja, Dawei, and the alchemist, Knave, from previous posts.
Myana is now the only player that has not died.
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So we just had our first death of RoW during Saturday's session. The players and I thought the whole story was cool, so I was told to post the manuscript of the battle for judgement. Commence.
Name: Finnian Arthfael
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Wizard 9th
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: The Eon Pit/ Totem Room
Catalyst: Vsevolod/ The Bebilith
WARNING: Long story coming your way
The Gory Details:
Keeping Vsevolod busy enabled the Ranger to duel one on one with the Svathurim, dodging the massive stallion and his deadly lance while whittling his HP down with arrow after arrow, until finally the Svathurim was felled by a well placed magical arrow. Around the same time, with a mighty shout Vsevolod crushed the skull of the last Hound Archon Fin brought into the fight with his massive hammer, and decided he was tired of fighting the minions, he wanted the to go right to the source. He wanted the Wizard.
In the intervening time, Fin landed next to his frozen friend and with his feeble old bones (the party was hit with Sands of Time in the Croning Ritual earlier) started chipping away at the ice with his staff. Vsevolod spied this, and knew if he didn't take this opportunity when it presented itself, the ice would break and release a, at this point by now, super pissed battle Cleric.
So he took a step back and flung into existence a huge column of divine fire (I gave him a couple more levels to make the fight more challenging) that he centered on the Wizard and the frozen Cleric. The result of the ferocious attack was devastating. It melted the ice around the Cleric, but at the same time knocked him into the negatives and dying, while it brought poor Fin to exactly 0.
Fin decided it was no longer worth it. All of his high level spells were gone, his teammate left the battlefield long ago, his Cleric (as far as he can tell) was dead, the Ranger was still fighting hard, but was distraught for his dying pet and it seemed like Vsevolod was untouchable. So he did what he kept warning the party he was going to do if he was in mortal danger: he dimension door-ed away.
But, he lost 1 HP by doing it, so as soon as he blinked into what he thought was an empty Totem Room, he fell unconscious...but the room wasn't empty unfortunately.
When the Eon Pit encounter began, I rolled a percentile to see where the Bebilith would be in the dungeon because the party skipped over the encounter earlier and in the book it said it liked to roam around the dungeon looking for prey. I was almost hoping I would roll the Eon Pit for more shenanigans, but alas I rolled the Totem Room.
Back against Vsevolod, the Ranger decided it wasn't worth it anymore as well, so he de-summoned his mammoth (I gave the Ranger and the Cleric a similar ability to the summon mount ability of Baba Yaga's Riders because they are essential to their builds) and dragged the half dead Cleric out of the Eon Pit, with the soundtrack of Vsevolod laughing manically ringing in his ears. Vsevolod figured they were retreating with their tails between their legs, having been thoroughly routed, and decided to not give chase. That decision would eventually cost him his life.
The Ranger used his Cure Light Wounds on the Cleric and was able to bring him back to consciousness. After a small conference and copious heals, they realized Vsevolod had no interest in following them, so they set to find their Wizard and Trickster.
Once they came to the Totem room, they spied the Bebilith coiling something in a cocoon and feared the worst. They fought the Bebilith, a relatively easy fight for them, and eventually found out what was in the cocoon when the desiccated corpse of Finnian Arthfael fell out and onto the ground.
The Cleric said a prayer to his Goddess and lamented their loss and professed his anger than the Trickster left in their time of need (they don't get along), and was ready to just leave this place. The Ranger would have none of that. They didn't come this far to lay down and let some Demon-worshiping Centaur dictate the fate of the world.
So they rallied together, just the two of them, spurred on by the death of their friend, and collectively decided that you know what? F&&% that Centaur.
They swung onto their mounts, a ferocious mammoth and a gallant white steed, and came to the entrance to the Eon Pit. They saw Vsevolod still in there, but he had his hand firmly around the throat of the Warden Jadrenka, who had befriended the party earlier. She was severely weakened by the Eon Pit, and was helpless against the Centaur's assault, so in one final moment of clarity, the Ranger turned to the Cleric.
"Smart and silent or loud and stupid?"
"Loud and stupid."
They charged the Centaur and began the duel to the death. They traded blow for blow, until Vsevolod was able to reduce the Ranger to 1 HP, so he backed off toward's Jadrenka's prone form. She weakly handed him the golden nugget, one of the keys to the Dancing Hut and told him that Vsevolod had the other key, and that they should try to get it off him before he kills them both.
The Ranger took the key and called out to the Trickster, who he knew had to still be in the room, asking that she show herself. He then heard a loud bang as Vsevolod caved in the Cleric's shield with his hammer and the Ranger became desperate. He yelled out one more time to the hidden Trickster.
"I'm sorry!"
See, the Trickster and the Ranger had been the best of friends up until the point he learned she performed witchcraft (read: had levels in Witch), and considering most of his kin had either been killed or enslaved by Witches as he was half-Ulfen, he had not been speaking with her. This angered and hurt the Trickster.
But hearing his outcry swayed her and just as Vsevolod was ready to end the Cleric he was still dueling with, she threw a bolt of lightning at the Centaur's back, damaging him greatly (he had 6 HP left after her hit), revealing herself out of the shadows of the Eon Pit.
Vsevolod looked back to see who had the audacity to hit him from behind, and that was all the opportunity the Cleric needed. He thrust his Holy Longsword at the Centaur.
Nat 20 on the dice, which was followed up by an 18 on the confirmation roll.
The holy energy of his sword entering Vsevolod's chest cavity burned him from the inside out and he fell to the ground in a heap.
The Ranger rushed over to Vsevolod's body while the Cleric silently said a prayer to Iomedae, and searched vigorously for the Dragon Scale that Jadrenka said he had. But his search came up empty and he let out a frustrated sigh. But then the Trickster trotted over to him, gave him a cheeky smile and held up a Blue Dragon Scale.
"Looking for this?"
Whew.
The player hasn't decided yet if he wants to make a new character or wants to be resurrected. He's expressed interest in a summoner, so next session should be interesting to say the least.
TL;DR: Wizard was lunch, what else is new
Name: Finnian Arthfael
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Wizard 9th
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: The Eon Pit/ Totem Room
Catalyst: Vsevolod/ The BebilithWARNING: Long story coming your way
** spoiler omitted **...
Pretty cool! I like how the Bebilith is the only kill, despite the final boss wrecking them.
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I needed to let some time pass before writting this one down, as the end for our RoW game was quite emotional for everyone and nostalgia isa hard thing to shake off; However, during the last session of the game there was one death worth mentioning.
Name: Windy Saan
Race: Fetchling
Classes/levels: Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger 16
Adventure: Witch Queen´s Revenge
Location: Antechamber to the Cauldron room
Catalyst: My desire to throw the guys a curb ball and foreshadow our current Wrath of the Righteous game
The last adventure felt slightly repetitive, so we decided that instead of running through the island "dungeon" to level up the characters would just get a temporary boost of mythic power from the witch queen herself. This made it possible for me to throw in a couple mythic glabrezus (from the legendary games demon book) as Elvanna´s final enforcers. The damn things ave a very nasty set of vorpal pincers, which beheaded poor windy the round before the beast was taken down.
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I needed to let some time pass before writting this one down, as the end for our RoW game was quite emotional for everyone and nostalgia isa hard thing to shake off; However, during the last session of the game there was one death worth mentioning.
Emotional? How did it end?
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The very end dealt a lot with the characters starting to see the whole story for what it really was: Baba yaga making a point at he expense of her daughter. They took pity on Elvanna and threw her down into a well of many worlds to spare her fate at least for a while. Given this, they of course asked Baba yaga to leave Golarion forever.
The very ending was also quite sad, as not only one of the characters offered herself in service to baba yaga (in the hopes of either rehumanize or killing her). The fire oracle went back to Iobaria (his homeland) and brought back with him the first dragon egg that would hatch there (courtesy of Ydrax) in a very long time. The cross dressing tiefling dervish dancer said goodbye as well and hitched a ride back to triaxis where Sezeer of Ning (a genderless male in my version) had been waiting for him/her. They all knew seeing each other again would be unlikely, but the whole binding idea of the adventure was to not belong, to be an outsider as the ultimate tool for freedom (baba yaga being the ultimate outsider), so they left. In the end, only an exiled half elf cavalier (who had her reincarnated father as a wolf mount) and the resurrected Windy (temporaly displaced fetchling from a cyberpunk style future earth) were left to watch over Anastasia (queen of irrisen). This was perfect as those two characters had been looking for a place to call home for their whole adult lives.
The very last scene of the game was all of them getting what the wanted (the oracle´s egg hatching, bard finding and fighting Sezeer in Triaxus, cavalier finding an additional bird companion who was a reincarnated Nikola Tezla (in Rasputin must die I used him instead of the less known scientist, also it was hell to find a picture of a bird that looked like it had a mustache), and the witch who left with Baba Yaga playing doctor´s companion with the witch queen. All with the background of Baba Yaga monologuing on how she kind of liked this weirdos and that if she ever saw them again they would know what suffering really means.
PD: I apologize for the wall of text but everyone loved how the game ended.
PD2: Also, I know a lot about he adventure was altered, but when the players get sucked into their characters, it is just natural to have the adventure adapt to them instead of the other way around.
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Name: Tasse
Race: Half-Orc
Classes/levels: Gestalt Barbarian/Rogue 8
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: Mother dungeon
Catalyst: The Witchfire
Name: Edward
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Gestalt Fighter/Oracle 8
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: Mother dungeon
Catalyst: The Witchfire
The Gory Details
Stepping into the temple section they were ambushed by the Witchfire. It hit every time it and everyone failed their saves to resist the added Witchfire effect. Further to this, Tasse couldn’t injure it as she hadn’t got round to buying a magic weapon yet (despite having the money and opportunity) and the arcane caster of the group was buggering about for the first few rounds before realizing how deadly the situation was. Also, they hadn’t healed up properly from the last encounter..
The barbarian Tasse couldn’t stand up to 30-50 damage per round and soon fell. After the other players whaled on it with magic weapons, it retreated into the wall.
A couple of rounds later, it invisibly snuck up on an injured Edward for one final attack and dropped him to -30ish before falling itself.
A harsh lesson, but they now know that being powerful isn’t much of an edge it you’re ill prepared.
I'm looking forward to the Witchfire fight.
Name: Brynnla the Baker
Race: Half-orc
Class: Druid 1
Adventure: The Snows of Summer
Location: The High Sentinel Lodge
Catalyst: Hold person and coup de grace
brynnla the baker?
did she make friends with the half orc female cook?
maybe it's a good thing she didn't survive? could you see everyone saying at level 15.... fear not! The baker is here!
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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Name: Terrax
Race: drow elf
Class: Gunslinger 5/Mythic Tier 1
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Clock Tower
Cause of Death: white dragon + Mythic Power Attack + Mythic Vital Strike + Critical Hit
The Gory Details: The party decided to be clever and scale the outside of the clock tower by night with spider climb spells, but their generally poor Stealth checks alerted the dragon within, whom I had replaced with the stock Mythic Juvenile White Dragon from the Mythic Adventures book. A surprise breath weapon did a little damage and slowed the party down a bit, inducing them to spread out. A follow-up Flyby Attack bite attack with the above feats did 52 points of damage to Gruu, the half-orc fighter/rogue carrying the party druid up the tower, but didn't quite drop him. However, the dragon flew out of sight while half the party finished the climb up to the ice platform. Once there, they spread out a bit to avoid the breath weapon, with Terrax ending up on one side of the platform.
On the dragon's next turn, it descended from above the roof of the tower intending to do another Flyby Attack. One crit and 99 points of damage later, Terrax was a bloody mess on the ground; however, the dragon flubbed its Fly check and was forced to land, allowing the rest of the PCs to bum-rush it in melee while the heavens oracle rained shooting stars on it to great effect. Terrax's meat-lure sacrifice brought the dragon close enough for the rest of the party to defeat it... though the battle for the interior of the tower just begun, as the trolls started coming upstairs and the PCs fought their way down to meet them.
My son, whose character this was, spent the next 2 hours making up a replacement character, a vishkanya ninja (hey, he's 15) who will still probably be shooting people in the face, but now with bamboo arrow shooters instead of guns. :)
Name: Kit
Race: Kitsune
Classes/levels: Bard 4
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: On the way to Whitethrone
Catalyst: Gray Ooze
The Gory Details: Dogsledding up to Whitethrone most of the party does not spot the random odd patch of ice in the wilderness, most focus really hard on just driving their sleds (only Nadya and the Ulfen paladin have any relevant skills).
Kit's sled, the last in the line, is grabbed by the gray ooze ice patch and he gets tumbled in a surprise round.
Round 1 the ooze rolls really high on initiative and kit rolls terribly. The ooze grabs him, grapples him, and starts to acidly eat away at him. Kit tries and fails to break away. Cursing of the dice ensues.
The other party members start making perception checks at various DCs for their position in their spread out dog sled train to notice the crash then call out to each other and start turning their sleds around from various distances ahead.
More grapple and constricting and acid and bad rolls on Kit's part ended poorly for him as other party members started showing up one per round and not killing the ooze fast enough.
Name: Ulfr Jotunsblood, Knight of the Blackest Midnight
Race: Ulfen, elemental touched
Classes/levels: Paladin
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: On the way to Whitethrone
Catalyst: Muagrim and Falcon guards
The Gory Details:
Maugrimm attacked the party at night, most of the party was asleep and unarmored.
The paladin made himself the center of attention declaring a smite on Maugrim and ignoring the falcons and archers who were withering and harassing the whole party.
Maugrim got off a crit bite first round which hurt. And knocked him down. Ulfr power attacking smote him back for over half the wolf's hit points and stood up smite deflecting the AoO. Maugrim called on the archers to target the paladin. Rapid shot and two falcons started wearing him down fast and he was self healing like crazy.
Maugrim breathed on half the party.
The paladin got a great axe power attack smite crit that did 98 points of damage on Maugrim taking out the wolf decisively.
The multiple arrows and falcons ravaged him though and he went down.
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Name: Ulfr Jotunsblood, Knight of the Blackest Midnight
Race: Undead
Classes/levels: Antipaladin 4
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Fish Camps
Catalyst: Party
The Gory Details:
So Rokhar Cindren, prisoner of the party, convinced them that the dead paladin Ulfr was likely to come back as an undead against them but that he could bring Ulfr back as a free-willed undead to continue their quest on their side. The party, after doing a speak with dead on Ulfr, agreed. The druid used the Cauldron of Summoning to bring in animal sacrifices for the ritual they were attempting. The inquisitor of Iomedae attempted to set up a ritual to mitigate the malign forces at work. Rokhar took his old scroll of create undead from the party's treasure hoard and cast the spell.
The scroll worked, the sacrifice's blood flowed, and I called for either a spellcraft or knowledge religion check for the Inquisitor as she set up the impromptu church ritual to try to infuse Ulfr with righteousness as he came back. She had some skill but not much and when the die roll came up a 1 . . .
Ulfr came back as an undead antipaladin Knight of the Blackest Midnight, convinced of the righteousness of LE and diabolic principles.
This went on for some time but the party quickly came to the conclusion that the powerhouse paladin abomination had to go. So when they fought the Fishcamp guards with Ulfr smite dueling Enarxian alone they left him to that then turned on him.
Alone he was almost a TPK for the rest of the party, but grease spells to prevent him from charging and most everybody else one shot away from death the inquisitor power attacking hit for 19 damage, enough to get Ulfr to zero exactly and finally brought him down. They burned his body in his huge tent along with his pack mule.
Best hope he doesn't arise as a ghost or something. ;)
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Best hope he doesn't arise as a ghost or something. ;)
The player was very tempted to come back as Rohkar as his new PC and use an Oracle of Bones build to summon Ulfr repeatedly as a zombie companion.
Snow, they were the same character =P
That is a reanimation ritual gone hilariously wrong.
Voadam, it appeared you had a paladin and an antipaladin in your group... how was that working?
Zhangar's right, it was the same paladin character brought back as a corrupted undead antipaladin. With the antipaladin and out of character the player egging them on the group decided after one session that the undead was too dangerous and evil and needed to be put down.
The player is now making a magus.
Voadam, reading that story I truly was rolling on the floor, laughing out loud. Genius.
Alright, Necrovox reporting in! Brace yourselves:
Name: Githym Rundeath
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Alchemist 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: The Enchanted Forest
Catalyst: Peryton
The Gory Details:
Rolled randomly to determine who would be shadow marked, Githym and Maiana (wizard). Combat began and Githym failed his will save, and bolted. He was run down by his peryton and had his heart devoured.
Name: Jon Rivers & Branis Boldarm
Race: Human & Elf (Reincarnated, started Human)
Classes/levels: Gunslinger 6 & Warpriest 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: The Enchanted Forest
Catalyst: Baccae Party
The Gory Details: The party gathered up Githym's body and possessions and quickly pressed on, low on resources from two of the dawn pipers and the perytons. They encountered the Baccae, and quickly realized something was amiss, Maiana advised the party leave the area. The Baccae took that as an invitation to attack. Branis steps forward and kills one of the three in a single round, driving the others into a rage, they flank him and tear him apart. Jon and Einen (Rogue/Fighter) continued to fight the baccae, but without healing left the final baccae managed to kill Jon right before she died herself.
This was 3 deaths out of 6 characters in my group. All three were reincarnated, Githym is now a wikkawak bugbear, Jon a half-elf, and Branis is ... still an elf.
But wait! There's more!
Name: Jon Rivers & Maiana
Race: Half-Elf (originally Human) & Elf
Classes/levels: Gunslinger 7 & Wizard 7
Adventure: The Maiden, Mother, and Crone
Location: The Trial of Night
Catalyst: The Drowning Pool
The Gory Details:
Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the *dun dun* FLOOR! Souzael and Jon Rivers cross the pebble path formed from Githym drinking from the appropriate Chalice (they guessed well on each riddle save for the animate dream), but was set to last only 3 rounds, and they screwed off, round 3 they finally try to break the lock. They fail, and the path falls into the water. Souzael fails all three saves, Souzael fails all but one. Saving his life. Branis ran out onto the path that formed from Einen taking the next swig to rescue them. Maiana, now annoyed by the trap attempts to outsmart the old crone's trial and spider climbs up the wall. She got 30 ft. before the pool attacked her and suffocated her to death after 3 failed saves....
Name: Souzael the Keleshite
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Oracle 7
Adventure: The Maiden, Mother, and Crone
Location: The Trial of Dawn
Catalyst: The Witch Queen's Nightmare
The Gory Details:
This encounter was frustrating to GM, especially after 2 deaths earlier on in the night, and 3 deaths only a session and a half ago. Basically no one in my party had the skills to answer the riddle, I had to give it to them after the rest of the party, save for Githym who refused to reenter the room after contracting (unbeknownst to him) nightmare curse and getting hit, HARD. Souzael ended up dying to just touch attacks. I refused to use Phantasmal Killer just because of the atmosphere of the room... It was tense.
Maiana also quit the game after being killed and then witnessing the events in the next chamber.
They have since moved on. Jon Rivers and Souzael did not reincarnate and have returned as a Winter Wolf Fighter, Agilur from Shackled Hut, and a Suli Barbarian named Sergeant Sanders "The Maggot" Bornhald of Brevoy respectively, and then a new player is Tevaga of Brevoy, a Half-Orc Fighter. Due to the player quitting and 2 near TPK's I allowed a bit of retraining for free. Einen is going Rogue/Wizard into Arcane Trickster now (which was more along the lines of what she wanted to do with Faunra) and Branis traded out his 7th level feat for Leadership and brought in a "healbot" Gunner Longshadow of Brevoy.
They decimated the assassins in the night encounter, and enter Atrosia the Unforgiving on Sunday.
*edit* Cleaned up formatting so it wasn't a massive wall of text.
This gives me more misgivings about the encounter against the Witch Queen's Nightmare. Has anybody run this encounter in a way they were happy with?
This gives me more misgivings about the encounter against the Witch Queen's Nightmare. Has anybody run this encounter in a way they were happy with?
I would change the requirement to get an answer from a bluff v sense motive to a DC 20 Diplomacy, Intimidate, or Bluff. This way a character that wasn't a complete POS and dump statted and dropped 0 social skills will be capable of making the requirement 1/4 to 1/2 the time. I had her attack the person who asks a successful question (so that endurance is actually part of the trial). I was not going to use phantasmal killer, but you could also reserve it for the person who gets the final answer from her. Make sure to have her Nightmare Curse be scenes of murder and deception so that the players can add that as a bit of a hint.
If your players are like mine, they didn't think they really needed social skills or knowledge skills, and oddly enough it has bit them in the butt since book one. If they fail to correctly ID who the animate dream should be, allow them to ask the Raven if they interact with her. I think for information to help ID the dream change the DC to a 15 when they ask her the question (down from 20) and allow them to make the knowledge check again. It is a very crucial bit of information for them to know that she is the daughter and previous queen.
If they player's kill her, have the raven tell them that nightmares cannot be slain by anything other than the coming sun, and have the door slam shut, they reopen and she respawns from the pool of blood.
I liked being cryptic, but don't be... too cryptic. I ended up frustrated and had to give it to them or get lynched. lol
... This is sad...
Name: Tevaga of Brevoy
Race: Half-Orc
Classes/levels: Fighter (unbreakable) 7
Adventure: The Maiden, Mother, and Crone
Location: The Maiden (Entrance)
Catalyst: The Witch Tree
They reach the top and run into the Witch Tree. Alchemist again identifies the creature but none of its abilities. She demands sacrifice and they begin talking. They took about 10 minutes BS-ing about what to do so I had the Tree begin singing in Abyssal. Add to the creep factor...
Alchemist takes a swig of barkskin potion, Tree questions his actions (I allow spellcraft for alchemist extracts) and he fails to give a disarming response, but talks to the tree in Abyssal. He begins small talk and gets the Sense Motive prompt. He fails. No one else understands Abyssal. He decides they're going to fight so he drinks a potion of shield. She attacks.
First round she dominates Tevaga. Then tells the party she has chosen her prize. They try to diplomacy after she's already made up her mind, and then same time attack her (yeah 'cause shooting an arrow at her and then asking if you can parley is how most things do business...). She calls Tevaga to her as her move action. Begins awesome blowing players around being overall frustrating but not overly deadly. No one but the barbarian ever tried closing into melee with her and so she grapples him. Few rounds into the fight they protection from evil Tevaga, and fail. The tree then instructs Tevaga to defend her. My sister plays Tevaga and was very cruel to her previous allies. She positioned for cleaves, charged healers etc. This lead to the melee focusing her down instead of the tree. The healers refused to heal her, and so... She dies. Diehard took her past 0 and yet she was unrelenting in her domination (she did this all by herself after reading the spell description to the point where I acted same time as her with the tree and didn't even watch that she was critting other players.) and finally fell after about 15 rounds or so of combat.
The Witch Tree knocked the Warpriest, Branis, down below 0. Nearly killed the Barbarian (who would have died 3 rounds after combat ended had he not gotten any more healing), and choked out the Winter Wolf. After her chosen prize died she informed the party that she was disappointed but would still accept the body as the sacrifice. She also allowed them to loot her and the corpses in the copse. (Did this because of how frustrated the group has been recently) They also sneakily took one of her fingers and went on their merry way into the doorway to ropetrick up for the night.
Had another death. The Coven is a gnarly fight if people decide to just "tank up" the witchfire.
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Name: Marislova
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Gestalt Ranger/Magus 9
Adventure: Homebrewed adventure after book 3
Location: The Abyss
Catalyst: A Devourer
Note: After book 3, each player is taking a turn to run a short hut mini adventure before I GM the rest of campaign. I took NPC Marislova as my temporary character
The Gory Details: In search for the keys to earth, the party ended up in the Abyss where we found a large tower which held an assortment of demons and undead.
Near the top we came across a devourer. It managed to confuse all the party members bar me, so it ended up like a 1 on 1 melee dual. It used ‘devourer soul’, which put me on -13. I bled out next round at -14, soul intact.
In death, Marislova turned back into a man.
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Name: Torin Bloodstone
Race: Dwarf (Linnorm Kingdoms)
Classes / Levels: Barbarian 4 (55 HP!!)
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Location: The Pale Tower
Catalyst: Mandragora, Confusion and Slumber Hex
The Gory Details
Both damaged themselves on their turn and fearing that the dwarf barbarian will either kill himself or the party if he attacked them (20 Str, Halberd) the witch cast slumber hex on him. He rolled a one and with the ranger and monk out of the fight, the creature fell upon the slumbered dwarf and coup-de-graced him. DC 19, the dwarf rolled a 2. Ripped out his throat and blood fed.
Eventually fell to the ranger and witch using melee.
Why do GMs feel the need to do a coup-de-grace on PCs? You should have had it just start pounding on the body or even go after the awake foe who was a threat to it.
Seriously. I wouldn't coup-de-grace a PC until they had access to spells like Raise Dead, and even then only have the Big Bad itself do this deed to make him even more hateable.
Why do GMs feel the need to do a coup-de-grace on PCs? You should have had it just start pounding on the body or even go after the awake foe who was a threat to it.
Seriously. I wouldn't coup-de-grace a PC until they had access to spells like Raise Dead, and even then only have the Big Bad itself do this deed to make him even more hateable.
I have coup-de-grace'd players before. Normally I don't have them do it unless they are not threatened by other players - OR - they are a creature that is trying to kill one person. So its rare. EDIT: Though I HAVE killed a ton of my players. As this forum is testament to. But normally because they are being morons.
But in this case I would have killed the player as well just because of the group's reaction to a confusion poison. Which is pretty ridiculous. Teach them not to shut down your own teammate and then leave him in melee.
There is a difference between killing someone who is being an idiot and doing a coup-de-grace because someone had bad die rolls. The entire point of the game is to have fun. Not to win. And coup-de-grace is the GM "winning" over the PCs. Especially if there is a viable threat from still-awake enemies!
Or to put it another way, the Barbarian was unconscious and no longer a threat. The Witch was awake and a threat... and ended up killing the Mandragora. So tactically it was not a smart move and resulted in the Mandragora dying. So why do it? Because you were punishing the players. That's not fun, and it's why I only GM these days, because of GMs who felt they could only "win" by killing off the PCs rather than let them enjoy themselves with a tough fight that they ultimate prevail over.
Edit: And mind you, as a player I once put myself in a "die" situation that I enjoyed tremendously (involving a flying bulette and my Paladin setting for charge using a longsword). The GM was mystified that I did that and I was reduced to -53 hit points. Yet I absolutely enjoyed myself because I was the one who put the character in that situation. It wasn't a bad die roll. It was a conscious decision.
If a player wants to pull a Gandalf against the Balrog, then that is a fine shining moment of glory. Gluttony recently posted a death when a player had to leave... and the character died well. But that wasn't the result of bad dice. It was the result of epic gaming... and was fun for the players.
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There is a lot of assumptions in your post and I would normally agree, I am more about player fun. In two and a half APs, that is only my second player death.
This was not punishing a player, this was using tactics available to players being used by a creature. The encounter states that it chooses a target and goes after it, chasing it down if it escapes. The dwarf was the first one to damage it and then fell asleep next it.
It was not about me "winning", being a GM is not about winning, but it is about challenging the players. Despite 1s or even low rolls always a possibility, I didn't expect the dwarf to fail. He did, and there were consequences. The player was fine with it, he liked his character, had done background but accepted it was a clean, fair tactic.
The player's are aware of the deadliness of this AP and to date, by the end of Book 1, they have used coup de grace on no less than 14 enemies with a Slumber Witch and Dwarf Barbarian combo.
So, I did not do it lightly and I felt really bad afterwards, but it was within the context of the situation and game and the players agreed it was their favourite session yet.
So whine if you want, but I know my players and my game and everyone had a great session that was dynamic and risky but ultimately, successful for the group despite sucking fumes at the end. The only one walking away upset was probably me.
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All I can say is that I do it sparingly. I did it my second to the last session in fact (different AP). The player somewhat gave me the nod 'okay'.
I think it depends on how you approach it. I have had GMs do a happy dance as they did it to a player, but I never do that. I don't actually like a lot of PC turnover in the story.
So why do it? The players expect the risks to be real and they don't like it when I pull punches. I struggled with it so much that I started using hero points so that I would never feel guilty.
But this player had used their hero points and it was time. Ultimately despite my reservations, I think it was good for the game. The stakes are both high and honest, and a lot of good roleplaying came out of the fallout.
Name:
Race: Human
Classes / Levels: Witch/9
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Location: Getting into Spurhorn; Patrol #1
Catalyst: Frost Drake Breath
The Gory Details:
The party decided to use fly spells on everyone and fly in to Spurhorn at night. The party consists of 6 players so they encountered 4 Frost Drakes instead of the written 3. The party was clumped together in their flying formation. The Witch rolled low on initiative and as the party spread out he was always in the largest group not getting a chance to move away. He eventually got breathed on by 4 Frost Drake causing a instant death. He fell all the way to the ground due to the party not being in position to get to him. The party kept going and left their comrades body behind.
The player was a level below the rest of the party due to missing a few sessions. Also, the player was tired of playing this character and did not want a body recovery team sent. He rolled up a new character to replace this one.
Name:Ace
Race:Human
Classes/levels:Ranger/12
Adventure:The Frozen Stars
Location:Ivoryglass The Lord of the Howling Storm
Catalyst:Being the first person to physically strike, Yrax Lord of the Howling Storm
The Gory Details:
Name: Ramon
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Gunslinger/13
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die
Location: Forest outside of the Prison
Catalyst: Fusillade fire
The party was heading back after there 2nd foray into the prison. They had focused mostly on taking out the exterior guards. When they returned to the hut to rest they found 2 Russian Rifle Troops and 6 Yeti Rangers waiting for them. The Gunslinger got a high initiative roll and unloaded and killed one of the troops in one round, unfortunately for him that meant he couldn't spread out and was standing right in front of Dragonkin Nevra. The troop unloaded 4 Fusillade on them. Nevra made most of her saves and survives, Ramon missed all 4 and took 160 hit points of damage killing him out right
Not a death as of yet, but might as well be. After 5 rounds in the Eon Pit our poor cleric (Brother Brecken of Sarenrae) aged 53 years and now has a 4 in both his Dexterity and Constitution scores. He still has his spells, but there's little hope for his survival during the first challenging encounter.
That is nasty about the eon pit.
I am fully expecting the crone dungeon to end in tears / very unhappy players as between the crowning ritual and the eon pit (and no cleric) there could be some very crippled pc's by the end!
Also given my groups propensity to blunder through killing everything that is even slightly suspicious (some were even suspicious of the injured family in the tree towards the end of shackled hut!) I expect them to encounter these obstacles with minimal warning / knowledge
How many hit points has the cleric now been left with?
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Name: Rasputin
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Mad Monk/Lots
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die
Location: Just in front of the Hut
Catalyst: Baleful Polymorph
I felt moved to share a most inglorious end to a most infuriating villian.
The Gory Details:
Wait. Wouldn't he just come back from the dead? Or did they kill him twice prior to the Kittening? (Too bad they didn't give him as a Kitten to Baba Yaga. That would have been... truly amusing.)
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Wait. Wouldn't he just come back from the dead? Or did they kill him twice prior to the Kittening? (Too bad they didn't give him as a Kitten to Baba Yaga. That would have been... truly amusing.)
That is nasty about the eon pit.
I am fully expecting the crone dungeon to end in tears / very unhappy players as between the crowning ritual and the eon pit (and no cleric) there could be some very crippled pc's by the end!Also given my groups propensity to blunder through killing everything that is even slightly suspicious (some were even suspicious of the injured family in the tree towards the end of shackled hut!) I expect them to encounter these obstacles with minimal warning / knowledge
How many hit points has the cleric now been left with?
Ironically, this same Cleric inadvertently killed the family in the tree thanks to a natural 1 roll on his climb check. I would've made it clear to everyone that there was a really nasty feeling coming from the Eon pit that even those without detect magic could feel it. I had even considered Jadrenka coming in and casting an age resistance spell on them before venturing down there, but he specifically said "I jump into the Eon pit and Featherfall down before anyone can stop me." (Maybe more of a selfless/heroic act than a foolish one.) But he's now been left with 42 hit points.
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Name: Valgard
Race: Human
Class/Levels: Fighter (Viking) 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: In Front of Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut
Catalyst: Icy Destruction
While Valgard duked it out with the ice golem, the party had brought down Nazhena's bodyguard, prompting her to cast a Wall of Ice to get her minion back on her feet. Valgard was trapped on the wrong side, separated from the party. Even so, he was doing well. With a powerful effort, he destroyed the ice golem, but was unprepared for the ensuing explosion. He fell unconscious, fell out of rage, and died.
He is outlived by his party, including his own dear grandmother. This is the party's first death.
Name: Emma
Race: Human
Class/Levels: Monk (Zen Archer) 7
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: During the Test of Endurance in the Chamber of Dawn in Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut
Catalyst: The Witchdaughter's Nightmare, and not knowing when to quit.
(I deviated significantly from the challenge as presented in the book, both to make it more of a Test of Endurance and because nobody in the party could possibly roll high enough on Bluff to beat the Nightmare's Sense Motive. The party would have made it through with no death, but for character stupidity.)
The party entered the room, and made no attempt to talk to The Witchdaughter's Nightmare, beating it down and taking a beating themselves. They healed up, and talked to Tryva, who sent them back to learn the thing's desires again. It had resurrected! This time Jamion caught on and tried to talk to it, but Fear sent him fleeing from the room. Valgard (resurrected himself from last session) did the talking in his place, and made good progress, sucking up a Phantasmal Killer in the process. Emma got crit by the Nightmare's touch attack, taking 48 damage, but not killing her. Valgard learned the requisite information and ordered a retreat, but Emma would not back down from the fight. The Nightmare killed Emma outright with her next touch attack.
This is the party's second death.
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Name: "Fluffy" (real name unknown)
Race: Winter Born Tiraxian
Class/Levels: Arcanist 13
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die
Location: The ruined village
Catalyst: Fiery Corpse Orgy
The Gory Details:
After a long protracted battle against the occupying Russian forces in which "Fluffy" bravely faced Mortar shells, grenades, minefields, and a tank, he was confronted with a flaming pile of corpses slowly advancing on him, instead of retreating he blasted it with a cone of cold doing an incredible amount of damage, sadly all this truly did was irritate the abomination and it screamed it's frustration, dealing almost maximum damage from its scream, causing Fluffy's already battered body to basically explode from the sonic impact. He was them absorbed by the corpse orgy before he could be revived.
Side Note:
Fluffy was in the party for a total of two in game weeks. Which ended up being two game sessions. Due to circumstances this is the fourth character lost by this one player who just so happened to be the holder of the Red Rider's mantle due to joining the game late. The party has now changed the title to the Red Shirt Rider instead.
Name: Dennis
Race: Bear
Classes/levels: Druid Animal Companion (4 HD)
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Between Waldsby and Whitethrone
Catalyst: Boreal Wolves
The Gory Details:
After Nadya's son wandered off, the party began looking for him. Shae (Dennis's master) and Dennis were able to pick up his scent and found him ravaged by a pack of Boreal wolves (I added a few wolves as I'm running with a party of 6, plus Nadya). The wolves viciously defend their prey, and acting like true pack animals, begin flanking the heroes. Dennis is able to distract two of them from the boy, but a few crits from the wolves and they are able to take him down. The party is able to take down the rest of the pack, though nearly losing their witch in the process.
Shae has yet to select another animal companion (I've also given him the option of switching to a domain if he'd like to).