I love how you remade Artrosa. Honestly, the AP puts a lot of interesting characters there (Marislova, Jadrenka, Caigreal) but it fails in making sense in a lot of moments. With some good work on it, like you or my GM did, it can be an awesome part to run with a lot of roleplaying oportunities without which it is just an average dungeon crawl. And still I remember it as one of the most intense moments in the life of my character.
Your story seems really good from what I can see from what you have posted.
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Ulfen Yuri, called the Wanderer, was reliable party's shooter ever since they rescued him from baccae inside Endless Forest, in Whitethrone Market Square. 4th module was especially unforgiving for him - first he got electrocuted, and later on maimed by dragon's bite...
Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 10
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Location: outside the walls of Spurhorn
Catalyst: ceustodaemon sentries
Gory details: after establishing peaceful contact with Bescaylie, the party decided to join in the defense of Spurhorn. They were trying to sneak in under cover of invisibility. Although frost drake patrol failed to detect them, it was not the case with daemons. Evil outsiders hit them with dispel magic, which managed to dispel Yuri's air walk - Ulfen dropped down like a brick, for 17d6 falling damage. He wasn't knocked out outright; daemons converged and dropped him in negatives very soon after. Battle oracle made aerial charge with blessed greatsword on a daemon trying to finish off Yuri and killed it on spot. However, standing above unconscious comrade, oracle was targeted by another ceustodaemon's electric breath - which did little damage to him but unfortunately crispified poor Yuri. Two hero points spent and archer was back from -28 hp to -1 hp and stable.
Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 12
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Location: Ivoryglass (D20)
Catalyst: very angry & very old white dragon
Gory details: second true dragon in AP, another PC kill. During protracted battle with Yrax, Lord of the Howling Storm, Yuri was the one dealing the most damage (thanks to instant enemy and crapload of other buffs). This also made him dragon's primary target. After already spending his last hero point a round before to get away from Yrax's full attack, Yuri was unable to avoid Flyby chomp reinforced by Power Attack and Greater Vital Strike for grand total of 77 dmg (!). Ranger's crushed body fell on the ground (-37 hp) where he was promptly revived by cleric's breath of life.
As before, stay tuned for more tales of mangled PCs...
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My gaming group is currently killing their way through 5th module. So far it has been the most deadly adventure they have experienced. As a GM I completely stopped pulling punches - they're adventuring party of five, well-optimized, with cleric and oracle. No challenge should be too hard for them - or should it?
Ancalagon is older step-brother of the hapless dervish that was already featured on this obituaries. He's a heavy-hitting battle oracle capable of surviving things that would finish off less optimized characters. He always has a trick up his sleeve, be it an immediate spell, save re-roll, magical talisman or weapon made of special material. His backstory includes military training, father issues and meddling with fiends of Lower Planes. He is one of the original three adventuring "Sons of Heldren" - and his time to die has finally came...
Name: Ancalagon Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: bloodrager 1/Spirit guide oracle of battle 11
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: gingerbread hut (A2)
Catalyst: bogeymen
Gory details: following Dancing Hut's transportation from Triaxus to Siberia, ranger and cleric were missing (one being stuck in a vision of another time, the other trapped inside magic mirror). The rest of the party started searching for them, leaving domovoi gulag and venturing straight into gingerbread hut. Although Ancalagon managed to shrug off effects of suggestion trap and deepest fear aura, he was affected by bogeyman's crushing despair - which made him especially susceptible to phantasmal killer on the next round. Overcome by pure dread, oracle dropped dead. His visit to afterlife was brief as Baba Yaga's spectre (and hero points) took him away from Moloch's throne and back to the world of living.
Once the PCs were out of the Hut and located Akuvskaya complex, ranger Yuri was again on the receiving end of GM's stick - this time in the form of bullets and grenade shells...
Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 13
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: edge of no-man's land around Akuvskaya prison
Catalyst: animated tanks... not once
Gory details: after PCs encountered pair of armed steel machines, their first instinct was to hide behind Dancing Hut or go invisible. But not Yuri. After witnessing his fellow companion cleric being blown off his feet by direct hit from Hotchkiss 6-pounder cannon, HIS first instinct was to start raining magical arrows on tanks - so tanks responded in kind. 5 hits (and 2 crits) later, Yuri was down to -43 hp and dead as a door nail - or he would be unless two hero points fixed him back.
Bogeymen!!! My worse nightmare! Those caused my only death in the AP! (It must be somewhere here too) If you read the first death Argentea had you'd know she and my PC were a couple. They had just broke (because Argentea thought their relationship distracted her from her duties), Argentea had just been humiliated in public on a party that was in her honor. So both were in their worst moment with very low morale. First encounter after that happened: bogeymen.
And both died. The dice rolls were pathetic. But with all the background of the story everything made sense. They were both cyclic reincarnated later, but they both had a big change on their personalities after that. My character matured a lot.
The Animate Tanks were a pain during all the story. We knew of the Telekinesis effect because we had sent a flying summoned monster to approach them to learn if they had any ranged attacks, so we were not surprised. In the fight against Polkovnik Lavrenti our Wizard panicked. The GM rolled the random direction where he fled and he flew over the Tanks. We delayed a bit on going after him because we couldn't. When we got there one of the Tanks was running over him repeatedly and he was bought into negative HP. We just picked him and teleported away.
Then they came back when the monastery appeared and we had to fight them. Argentea did a great job tanking the tanks but they dealt serious damage. They ran over her a few times and she was still fighting but she was about having to redirect damage to her shield to prevent being knocked out, so I had to Dimension Door her away while the other party members finished the tanks. As there were a couple of tanks one would have forced her to redirect damage and the second would have killed her. It was close!!!
But the greatest menace was... Nadya! She almost caused a TPK when she got confused by the Animate Dreams!!!
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To tell you the truth, I completely underestimated bogeymen abilities.
Two of them were almost too big of a bite for the party of three - with oracle dead and dervish frightened, it was up to conjurer to deal with them solo. Ulfen conjurer is played by methodical and resourceful player - after going invisible he split the room in two via wall of force, in order to protect incapacitated comrades. Then he buffed himself with spell turning and see invisibility, and proceeded to elegantly remove hostiles by disintegrate and suffocation. Afterwards he dressed himself in posh clothes from strangled bogeyman (hat included) - since he (somewhat rightfully so) considers himself "THE bogeyman", being all elusive and deadly.
Ole! Thumbs up for your player. Our Wizard could only take us back to the previous room. Fortunately it was enough. The next time we crushed them.
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As per designer's notes, I try to make encounters in Akuvskaya prison as dynamic as possible, with defenders reacting to PCs actions (trench & tower defenders being the obvious exception).
This includes Rasputin himself, whom I buffed up with couple of mythic tiers, truly allowing him to be ever vigilant "All-Seeing Eye" the adventure assumes he is. They encountered him 4 times already: first and second time in the village and abbey respectively (as per book); third time supporting the outer perimeter defenses (also as projected image); and finally when Mad Monk attacked them in the Hut, using astral projection.
This retaliatory attack was provoked by several factors: PCs managed to revive Viktor Miloslav, abduct Anastasia, destroy Radimir, find blueprints to World Anchors and clear out the third of outer perimeter defenses. All in a span of 24 hours. So when they retreated back to the relative safety of Dancing Hut in the evening, Rasputin struck - and he brought several friends along. Shadow demons, all the surviving yeti trackers and polkovnik Lavrenti. Just to be sure, two animated tanks were also parked outside to pick off stragglers. Once the battle was joined, Lavrenti was specifically tasked with retrieving Anastasia and planeshifting away with her. The rest of the enemies, Rasputin included, proceeded to wipe out "Sons of Heldren". Blazing heroics by PCs and several timely critical misses by enemy carried the day, but not without losses...
Name: Ancalagon Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: bloodrager 1/Spirit guide oracle of battle 13
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: coffin room (A7)
Catalyst: zemlemers
Name: Rosom Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: Dervish bard 13/Urban barbarian 1
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: coffin room (A7)
Catalyst: Mad Monk
Gory details: with AC 31 and several mirror images, Rosom was tanking several yetis and shadow demons at once, with Rasputin casting spell after spell at him. After spending his last hero point to avoid being annihilated by destruction (added +4 on save and turned 170 dmg to barely 10d6 dmg), Rosom was unable to resist terrible remorse which negated his offensive potential and allowed yetis to finally take him down. Rasputin was about to use death knell on fallen dervish, when Ancalagon finally managed to cut his way to brother's side, drawing upon his rage power. Oracle then proceeded to beat Rasputin's astral projection within inches of death (Mad Monk was finished by cleric's spiritual weapon few seconds later), whereupon he was rended into shreds by the last surviving yeti (dropped into negative... stopped raging... dead).
This was the last session we had, and Ancalagon is still waiting to be resurrected. This encounter had one more casualty...
Name: Viktor Miloslav (NPC)
Race: human
Classes/levels: expert 10
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: coffin room (A7)
Catalyst: Mad Monk again
Gory details: at the start of the battle he got trapped within shadow demon's shadow web, unable to run away. Also unable to avoid Rasputin's destruction, which finished him off - this time for good.
I love that you had them reacting to the PCs actions, it makes a lot of sense. Having everything as static encounters sort of ruin the dinamism of this part. My GM also made Rasputin more present even though he didn't fight us until the last moment, but I think it's important at least to take time to develop him and present him to the PCs so they have time to know him best. He is an awesome character and not using him to the max is a waste.
In our case he tried to seduce our characters to join him and let him destroy Baba Yaga. None of us wanted her free so it was tempting. Nadya almost aggreed.
I really like what you are posting. It seems you are doing a great job with the story.
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These aren't true deaths, but they're in negative hit points which is still pretty scary at level six.
Plus one PC managed to do it three times in one evening. Achievement Unlocked!
Name: Rhys Hawkwind
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Swashbuckler 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Market Square, Font of Water
Catalyst: Auraenos, Overconfidence
The Gory Details: Rhys had already had some close calls in the previous session last week; getting trapped in a summoned spiked pit, getting charmed by the Baccae, getting sneak attacked by Silverthorn ... he was at about half hit points when he ran into Auraenos' pool to start last night's session. He took damage from an Aqueous Orb (which he easily escaped), and a Dissonance dropped him down to single digits. The rest of the party was focused on freeing the Oracle from the Aqueous Orb ... Auraenos remembered that he had a rapier. Critted poor Rhys right in the chest. He was two rounds away from bleeding out when the rest of the party managed to stablize him ...
Name: Rhys again
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Swashbuckler 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Market Square, The Dancing Hut
Catalyst: Nazhena Vasiliovna, Refusal to retreat.
The Gory Details: Did I mention that Rhys was the one to finish off Radosek at the end of book 1? Plugged him with a lucky crossbow bolt. (Then Radosek's Fly spell failed and he crashed in the courtyard). I didn't think Nazhena knew about this but she must have found out somehow.
She's supposed to start off with a Wall of Ice, but I like playing smart enemies smart. The party was nice and compact and she led off with Ice Storm. Druid dragged his Wolf to safety, Witch, Magus, and Oracle took to the air, leaving Rhys in single digit hit points to deal with the Ice Golem. A few rounds later, Golem drops him.
Name: Rhys!
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Swashbuckler 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Dancing Hut, Cauldron Room
Catalyst: Glyph of Warding
The Gory Details: Rhys thinks he's a Rogue sometimes. "I check the door for traps", rolls a 14. "All set, there are no traps!"
Then he opens the door and boom. Fails his save. His party mates had healed him just barely exactly enough after the Nazhena Vasiliovna fight that he survived, although not before collapsing for the third time that night and into accidental legend.
I'm looking forward to posting more in this thread when the Party makes it to Artrosa. And I have no idea how they're ever going to survive Book 5 ... well, if you're reading this thread, you know what they'll face sooner or later.
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This is not Reign of Winter but Witchwar Legacy, which we played as a follow up of Reign of Winter. So if you don't want spoilers for Witchwar Legacy, don't continue reading.
Our Wizard had a hard time on this dungeon. We did most encounters easily but the environment was lethal, and Arthur was short on hit points.
Name: Lord Arthur Strongshield
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Wizard (abjurer) 17
Adventure: The Witchwar Legacy
Location: Caves
Catalyst: Rocks fall, Arthur dies
The Gory Details: We got into a huge cavern, and we were attacked by Remorhaz. Each round of fighting there was a chance of the ceiling falling because of the tremors caused by the burrowing Remorhaz and there were more and more of them joining the fight each few rounds.
The fight lasted too many rounds, but it wasn't specially difficult. But Arthur kept failing his saves against the falling rocks and ended being buried alive. As we couldn't touch or see him, we couldn't heal him. So he ended taking more damage and dying. We didn't realize until the end of the fight. We teleported to a town to get him resurrected and back to the place.
Name: Lord Arthur Strongshield
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Wizard (abjurer) 17
Adventure: The Witchwar Legacy
Location: Lower caves
Catalyst: Geyser
The Gory Details: on the same day of his previous death, we went down some stairs that went next to a geyser. The geyser lasted a few rounds, each one for a different nasty effect, that included fire damage from the geyser itself, physical damage for falling shards of ice and Cold damage. Even though we were protected the damage was overwhelming. Kileanna, my witch, got knocked down, while Arthur died. Darion, our Inquisitor, casted Breath of Life (or a similar effect, I cannot recall) on Arthur, and Arthur teleported us out there, saving Kileanna's life.
It was Inspiring Recovery from the Healer's Handbook. And man, it was truly inspiring!!
From that point on, whenever the Inquisitor run off sixth level spell slots, the party decided it was time to rest.
Hey, Arthur could die again, you know.
Yes... We'd better forget that Kileanna was about to die on the geyser too.
By the way... Should I post the obituaries for the homebrew parts with homebrew bosses? It was Reign of Winter, but not the Reign of Winter that we all know...
Artrosa is too inconsistent. It has great parts, yes, but also some ones that made me think of homebrewing the full book. What I did was salvage and adapt the parts that could be interesting to my players and cut the rest. Maybe Jadrenka couldn't help the party because of her particular oath, but Marislova had not that problem, so I use her to guide the characters so they could avoid the most tedious parts.
In the end I gave a lot of relevance to the parts of the Hags, the Nymph, Jadrenka and Marislova. With Marislova's help I cut a lot of combat encounters and replace them with a lot of roleplaying and some hard decissions.
I also made the travel to Artrosa very important to the Slayer of the group (she was the Dragonlance version of a Forlorn Elf), putting her in contact with her clan and making her take a very hard decission.
The wizard and the warrior also had an important sidequest to get some help from an order of knights. This was very important in the next books (in fact it led to an almost full homebrewing of the sixth book!).
I think that the trick is making it personal.
+1 to that.
Dalindra made that a great part because it was very personal.
Also, developing both Caigreal and Jadrenka and make them the axis of the story might be a good idea, making them play with the characters and try to get them to their side. Like that, it's not just a dungeon crawl, the players will feel involved into the story there.
Dalindra also gave some more relevance to Baba Yaga's implications here, so it didn't feel so disconnected from the main plot. All the hags and Jadrenka had strong opinions on Baba Yaga and wanted whether to leave Artrosa and their duties, control the place, remain loyal to her...
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There ARE some cool parts, but reading through it makes a lot of the pieces seem disjointed from each other. Like a series of unrelated events. Especially from the PC's POV, since they don't have backstory and motivations typed out in front of them.
Also, the total lack of anything directly related to Elvanna seems to make her feel far away. She is, but I still want to do something to show that her influence is being felt here.
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I played up the parts having to do with Kostchtchie, since I will be running The Witch War Legacy at the end of the campaign. I played this up as a conflict between male and female forces and reinforced all the elements related to this conflict. In this way disconnected combat encounters suddenly did not seem so very disconnected, and Marislova got even more interesting. (For a while my players even feared their (male) characters would also become female.)
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Another month, another PC death.
I continued GMing regularly after several months of hiatus during which we played only a single session. The story reached the point where they're calibrating World Anchors - the party managed to clear out 3 out of 4 towers while annihilating two thirds of Akuvskaya defenses (there's currently only 4 troops left, including reserves; also they smashed 6 out of 8 tanks). However, two Anchors got damaged by grenades and flamethrower which resulted - and they're not fully aware of this - in opening up the rift to First World. Various fey are starting to pour into Material Plane and attacking beleaguered Akuvskaya defenders, but they'll also present problems to PCs - especially since "certain mortals stole Dancing Hut right beneath their noses" all the way back in Whitethrone...
Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 14
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: at the World Anchor (C3, NW)
Catalyst: trench zombies... or should I say zombie sharpshooters
Gory details: lacking wizard for the most part (since he's invisibly calibrating World Anchors, which takes 2 minutes per Anchor - he needs exactly 20 on d20 to succeed with Engineering check, and thanks to late Viktor Miloslav's input, he's able to "take 20"), battle oracle, dervish, cleric of Abadar and ranger took on perimeter defenses head-on, commando style. Which means approaching by flight or teleportation, under cover of invisibility then pounding and shooting stuff until they stop moving, with oracle occasionally bombarding enemies with flamestrike. And it would have worked so fine if I hadn't rolled prodigious amount of natural 20s, enabling me to hit them hard and often, despite bullet shield and cover. Being the party DPSer as always, Yuri was targeted the most: his hit points went from full to single digits several times. After some time party decided to retreat, regroup and heal up with wands of cure light wounds, since they were spending their main healing spells like they're going out of fashion. Flying between covers, Yuri got hit 5 times by a squad of trench zombies, while in midair. -10 hp turned to dead after falling down 20 ft. Luckily for him, both oracle and cleric were close by - former revived him with breath of life and latter got them all out of crossfire by dimension door.
The Trench Mists and Trench Zombies were terrifying!
We had to get away from them the first time, went fully prepared the second time and beat them and when we thought there weren't more of them... Rasputin brought more to the final battle (using one of the storing cylinders) and killed Arthur.
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RIP the Whole Party :(
Name: Xanthippe "Zan" Euphram
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Bladebound Magus 6
Name: Justin Verres
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Battle Oracle 6
Name: Rahel "Ray" Banashim
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Witch 6
Name: Rhys Hawkwind
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Swashbuckler 6
Name: Talnar
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Druid 6
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Catalyst: The Witchdaughter's Nightmare, an underratedly brutal encounter for CR8
The Gory Details: The party had just arrived in Iobaria, and hadn't had a chance to fully heal up before they started to explore. And of course the first room that they try is the Chamber of Dawn.
The Challenge of Endurance went just about exactly as written - players kept asking the Animate Dream about her background, she kept getting more and more agitated, before she started demanding that the party "free" her and attacked. Everyone was conveniently bunched up, so she started with Confusion.
Xan, Ray, and Justin all failed their saves (and started rolling terribly on their Confusion rolls). Rhys and Tanlar charged in and started nickling and diming the Dream down, but not much they can do vs Incorporeal. Ray, Justin, and Xan spend 3-4 rounds stabbing themselves and each other. Rhys dropped, but stabilized on a natural 20. Talnar dropped. Ray was put to sleep (Deep Slumber). Xan had a few moments of clarity, but whiffed the round before she dropped. Justin, wearing heavy armor, couldn't escape and was cut down to complete the wipe.
Zan was 19. The daughter of Heldren's blacksmith, she loved working in the forge and practicing with weapons, but also studying magic. She could deal some pretty insane damage sometimes (She'd two-shot Logrivich on two crits a few sessions ago), and while she'd faced some close calls, her luck held out. Until last night.
Her Black Blade, a Katana called The Ronin Prince, had been passed down in Justin's family for generations before Zan reforged him. Now he's stuck in the Dancing Hut until another Bladebound Magus walks by ...
Justin was 26 and thought he was human. His family's Oracle "Curse" was a result of Celestial blood, but he knew it only as some kind of family shame. The Ronin Prince had been allied with one of his ancestors, and was trying to convince him that there was nothing to be ashamed of.
Justin had a massive but hidden crush on Zan. Nothing's going to happen there now ...
Ray was an orphan, brought up by a shady Witch living ouside of Heldren. Her parents were part of a coven of high-class socialite Witches in Oppara, but "something went terribly wrong" and her guardian barely escaped to obscurity in Heldren with two-year-old Ray in tow.
I was looking forward to dropping subltle hints and eventually building up that she is descended from the Jadwiga Tashanna. Now she'll never know. (Unless you're reading this, in which case I hope the adventure is over! And that you guys didn't TPK again).
Rhys wasn't in top shape going into this encounter; he was suffering from Bloodfire Fever from a Troll Hound bite in the Clock Tower, and was suffering from ST and Dex damage (awful for a Swashbuckler) and Fatigue (certainly doesn't help). He'd failed every saving throw he rolled vs disease and I'd gotten sadistic pleasure in describing just how painful this disease is.
At least that pain is over.
Talnar was a stereotypical filthy hippy, living in a ramshackle hut well outside of Heldren, in the woods. He refused to learn any healing spells besides Goodberry, but he had an evangelical calling to distribute those berries and try to convince anyone who would listen (nobody) that they would cure any disease, curse, magic, impotence, anything.
If there's a silver lining, it's that this group has consistently shown that they can bang out interesting and entertaining characters, who are fun to play and for whom I like DMing. I'll miss this party. But soon we'll see the next one.
(Turns out, way before this all started, the White Rider called in some favors with a bunch of 7th level adventurers, then hid them in the Hut when everything went south).
Continued fatalities' list of adventuring party called "Sons of Heldren".
Several days ago we finally started last chapter of this magnificent adventure path, 76 sessions in, two and a half years of RL time. After selling off ungodly amount of loot acquired in Akuvskaya Prison, Zilvaazarat delivered a crapload of purchased items to PCs. One very important item included was true resurrection scroll, which was promptly used to revive party dervish after his most unfortunate demise 4 days earlier (in-game time) within Called Down Monastery.
This marked 5th PC death in 5th module alone, and 5th fatality by this same player. There were 11 PC deaths in campaign so far, with number rising up to 16 fatalities when allied NPCs and near-deaths (averted by "creative" use of hero points) are included.
Name: Rosom Sigurdsson
Race: human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: Dervish bard 13/Urban barbarian 1
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: Thrice-Tenth Presbytery (H6)
Catalyst: Mad Monk
Gory details: the party finally cornered Rasputin within Akuvskaya Monastery and epic struggle unfolded within presbytery. Mad Monk was supported by wounded Seraphina, two surviving nosferatu priests, last surviving shadow demon, with pale sniper on party's heels. With all that, antilife shell still proved to be the most annoying obstacle, so when Rasputin hovered above battleground, the question of its hemisphere's orientation arose. And Mad Monk's (...cough... GM's... cough...) plan was found lacking - Rosom Sigurdsson was the one to spot the flaw and the one to exploit it, dancing right into Rasputin's reach, below his feet. Unfortunately for dervish this made him prime target - on the next round Rasputin corrected his mistake and at the same time evaporated Rosom with destruction.
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It's a hemisphere. Huh. For all these years, my group has completely missed that.
When I ran the fight we thought it was a sphere, but the ranger simply squeezed past the of edge of it and started smashing the World Engine. (Meanwhile, the aasimar arcane duelist bard went straight for Rasputin, because anti-life shell doesn't keep out native outsiders.)
IIRC, the World Engine was disabled before Rasputin even died for the first time. It's been a while, though.
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I'm going to assume that the hemisphere description is assuming the character is grounded. The actual spell details call it a 10 ft emination. Eminations don't go through the ground, but if there IS no ground beneath the player then the spell should still go out to its full 10ft in all directions.
Most of the wall spells are NOT worded similarly, because they don't move with the caster.
Then again, there's no reason why hemisphere should be created horizontally rather than vertically, which to me seems the way designer intended. Of course, this only occured to me after the session - during battle, Rasputin simply landed and backed away closer to corridor (after destroying dervish).
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Name: Dominique Maxillian
Race: Half-elf
Classes/levels: Oracle (Spirit Guide) 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Nazhena's Camp
Catalyst: Ice Golem, with a little help from the party
The Gory Details: While traveling through the forest, the PCs learnt that Nazhena was actually trapped outside the Reality Siphon, and was waiting for them to destroy all the elemental fonts for her. They decided that instead of doing her dirty work and letting her get back to the hut before them, they would see if they could find her. Once the party went back to the Reality Siphon, they found tracks leading away from it, one set including a dress that dragged into the snow. Following the tracks, they noticed upon a large tent made of ice in the distance and prepared for combat. Unfortunately for them, a mirror man had been stealthily following them since the encounter with Ragathiel, and was reporting regularly with Nazhena. This, along with her research into the invasion of the Pale Tower gave her a massive amount of information on the PCs and their abilities. She told the mirror man to attack the PCs, buying Nazhena and her witchguard Veviane time to buff before they joined together in a long-range attack. With Veviane interrupting PC spellcasting with readied action gravity bow Vital Strikes and Nazhena laying down crowd control to hamper the PCs, Dominique Maxillian decided that they needed to close distance ASAP to at least force Veviane to drop her bow and focus on melee.
When Dominique closed with Veviane, they did indeed manage to convince her to switch to her greatsword, but the statue beside her woke up and moved to start pounding on them as well. Surrounded, Dominique called for the newly freed ranged support, and fireballs came in to pummel Veviane, the Ice Golem and Nazhena, catching Dominique as well. One fireball finally destroyed the golem and it blew up; both Veviane and Dominique were killed straight away from the flying ice shards. With no hero points left to preserve their life, Dominique became the first PC with a permanent death in the adventure.
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I just started running this and have just had my first PC death:
Name: Wulfretha
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Sorcerer (Pestilence) 1
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Location: Just Before Getting To The Lodge
Catalyst: Random Encounter with 4 Shocker Lizards
The Gory Details: The players stumbled over 4 hibernating shocker lizards in the cold. Sadly, nobody noticed their hidden sleeping place (DC 27 from them taking 10) and literally stumbled over them...and then they rolled better initiative than all but one PC. The PC in question very sensibly moved away and cast sleep rendering one lizard unconscious. The other three lizards then did their standard attack...an area attack hitting all PCs but the one who'd cast sleep for 6d8 damage (DC 13 for half)...and rolled 19 damage. All PCs made the Save and survived (some unconscious)...except Wulfretha, who had 7 HP and Con 12 (and was down a couple of HP already, not that it mattered). She failed the save and died instantly. The other PCs ran and were not chased (one even grabbed her body, which they gave a proper funeral pyre...she was from the Land of the Linnorm Kings).
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Name: BreezeChaser
Race: Wolf
Classes/levels: Druid Animal Companion 11
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Location: Rimekeening Crevasse, Frost Worm Attack
Catalyst: "The better part of Valor", and Frost Worms hurt more than anyone thought was possible.
Gory details: BreezeChaser has been the loyal companion of Druid Talnar since they used to wander the Border Wood outside Heldren together well before the adventure started.
The party had been tearing through Rimekeening Crevasse, and despite almost losing their Magus to the Carnivorous Crystal in C2, continued on to C3.
The first Frost Worm popped out of the ground and blasted the Party with the most powerful breath weapon they've faced yet. A furious fight ensued, the first worm was down to about 25% when the second popped up.
Magus and elemental-themed Cleric blasted the second Worm with Fire and managed to take it down in a round before it could use its breath weapon, due to some clutch crits and generally decent dice. When they figured out the Death Throes explosion, just about everyone cleared out of the first Worm, leaving it with only BreezeChaser to attack. He happily "bit", dropping the wolf. Then the second worm exploded. Killing the first worm, who also exploded.
At the end of the encounter, BreezeChaser was at negative 101 hit points. Talnar is currently scraping chunks of meat, chitin, and bone off of the walls of the glacier, trying to separate wolf from worm.
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After 51 sessions, we finished.
Despite using Path of War and some 3rd party feats we lost 15 PCs, 5 NPCs, half army and almost the sanity of the former Black Rider, my PC. She died only once, 'cause she was turned to stone; our damage dealer managed to pull things off and saved me with the help of a kind merchant of the stars. Saving throws were never my thing. But in the end we prevailed, but at what cost? My PC was the only one to survive from the original party gathered at Heldren. At least my PC has Greta now.
For some reason, book 3 was the deadliest.
Name: Reynard Trellers
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Ecclesitheurge Cleric 12
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: Dancing Hut, Gingerbread Hut room
Catalyst: Grossly Negligent Recklessness
Gory details: Reynard is an Ecclesitheurge who thinks he's a wizard, taking the Fire and Water domains and slinging out fireballs when needed. Unfortunately, he's about as squishy as a Wizard without many of the wizard defensive spells, so he usually wisely keeps to the back.
This time, he and his companions, Ray (Witch 12) and Xanthippe (Bladebound Magus 12) entered the Gingerbread room.
Reynard and Xan passed their saves, Ray failed and immediately tried to gobble down some delicious candy furniture. Xan realized that was probably a bad thing and dragged her friend out (Ray has a hilariously bad CMD). Reynard, thinking quickly, slammed the door behind them to prevent Ray from getting back into the room. Presumably thinking about what a close call that was, Reynard wandered over to the candy window to look out. He had no chance at all to notice the invisible Bronislav and Mitya approaching ...
Three brutal sneak attacks later, Reynard was dead and the rest of the party ran into the room for the toughest fight yet of this module. Okay, it's the first fight, but still ...
Name: BreezeChaser again
Race: Wolf
Classes/levels: Druid Animal Companion 12
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: Dancing Hut, Gingerbread Hut room
Catalyst: Being in the wrong place at the wrong time
Gory details: The Party stormed the Gingerbread room after the Bogeymen murdered Reynard. Some of them failed their saves and started munching on the furniture. Mitya ran up to one of them, sneak attacked, and then used his Quickened Phantasmal Killer on the biggest, scariest thing he saw - BreezeChaser. Who never even took an action that turn.
After the fight ended, Xan went exploring to find a safe room to camp in. Looked through the wardrobe, saw her own reflection in the window ... and then they were three.
They've recovered now but I had visions of a one-at-a-time wipe coming up.
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Name: Alurith
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Wizard 7 (admixture evocation)
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: On the porch of the hut
Catalyst: Rocks to the face
Gory Details: The party engaged in battle with the 8 frost giants. They were doing pretty okay by the time the hut animated on round 3. Alurith, on the porch of the now mobile hut, was using scorching rays and fire balls. The giants, between not wanting to approach the giant construct and fearful of their elemental weakness, assaulted the wizard with rocks. He'd already been hit once early in the fight, and the combination of two more thrown rocks on top of his refusal to cast false life (necromancy is an opposed school) saw him drop from mid hp to negative con in two hits.
A convenient case of "who has that loot item?" saw Alurith as the possessor of the recently looted Aegis of Recovery, which promptly healed the wizard from death.
Only at this point did anyone have the idea to go back inside the hut.
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Vendor - Fantasiapelit Tampere
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Name: Upi Lunkka
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Hunter 8
Adventure: Maiden, Mother & Crone
Location: Artrosa
Catalyst: Upasunda Ranisukalapaladi
The Gory Details Lunkka is a tough nut to crack, great fighter with absurd kill count. But upasunda won iniative, and casted haste. Upi, used a spell to move behind her, ready for flanking. Unfortunately everyone else kinda just readied for combat, casting defensive spells or trying to hex the upasunda. And oracle stepped unfortunately, next to Upi's companion mammoth's line of charge and he could not join battle yet. Then came upasunda's turn, and she full rounded Lunkka, missing with kukri but critting with longsword. Upi had some earlier damage still hanging, and went down hard.
Now the player wants to change character, because Upi believed in natural progression of death and does not want to be raise'd or reincarnated. Which is shame, since Upi was fun and competent character.
And the artist I commissioned for a group picture just finished Upi's picture, which seems just ironic.
Name: Inspector 74
Race: Triaxian(!)
Classes/levels: Investigator 7
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Logrivich's Tower
Catalyst: Full attack from an adult dragon
The Gory Details: Inspector 74 was the only party member capable of flight, so he took to the skies to face Logrivich using Monstrous Physique. Two full attacks (with a crit on bite) and a breath weapon later, the Inspector's headless corpse went splat on the streets of Whitethrone.
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Vendor - Fantasiapelit Tampere
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Names: Akariel Wrona & la Gorda
Races: Half-Elf & Changeling
Classes/levels: Magus & Witch 12
Adventure: Frozen Stars
Lovation: Rimekeening Crevasse
Catalyst: Frost Worm Death.
Gory Details: Frost worm explosion is a b@@&#. 100 ft blast with about 20d6 dices rolling, and Magus had already taken damage and Witch was feeble to begin with. I also rolled like a madman, and it was ripe 90 points of damage. Boom. Magus dies immediately, and Witch's body dies but his soul escapes to her familiar, as beast bonded witch she is.
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My second PC death actually happened a few weeks ago, I'll note it now.
Name: Garik Goldtooth
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Unchained Monk 7/Fighter (Lore Warden) 1
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: Room D8 of The Mother
Catalyst: Ranisukalapadi
The Gory Details: The Upasunda spotted to PCs long before they spotted her and buffed far enough away to not be spotted. Then she snuck up on them and won initiative. She moved up to the resident Monk, then full attacked him with Power Attack. Pretty much all of her attacks hit. He died.
Luckily, the PCs had played relationship councilor for Jadrenka and were able to convince her to raise him from the dead, so his adventures have continued (they're into The Frozen Stars now, no more casualties as of yet).
Name: Tavarian
Race: Venerable Human
Classes/levels: Druid (Reincarnated Druid) 13
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: In front of the Dancing Hut, just after exiting it for the first time, near the burned out village of Akuvskaya
Catalyst: More dakka!
The Gory Details: The party had just exited the Dancing Hut and taken in the sight of the burning village ruins, when they stumbled into the carefully placed minefield. Most people managed to make their percentile rolls, but one of our Rangers, Dimitry, not only managed to set off a mine but also failed his reflex save with a one. As soon as the mine went off, the two troops started firing their rifles. The party was hit pretty hard, first by the explosion of the land mine, then by two hits from a hail of bullets each.
While most survived this heavily wounded, Tavarian was ripped to shreds. Which was what the player had been waiting for months, since he of course reincarnated into a young half-elven body shortly thereafter. The rest of the party managed to scatter the two troops after a few rounds of frantic scrambling.
If I had used the mortar attacks as well, we'd probably have four more entries here. The group avoided all combat with troops thereafter and managed to solve the mystery of the monastery and defeat Rasputin in a few months of playtime.
I ended the campaign at that point, since Rasputin was the absolute high-point of the adventure path and they had found Baba Yaga after all. This was the only death of the entire adventure path, which is a bit unusual for how things tend to go in my campaigns. Well, now it is on to Shattered Star, which we began two weeks ago and the second session is coming up this Tuesday!
Name: Reynard Trellers
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cleric 16 (Ecclesitheurge)
Adventure: The Witch Queen's Revenge
Location:The Guarded Ledge
Catalyst:Trapped with an Ice Devil
The Gory Details: Those Gelugons are nasty. They'd summoned their Bone Devil allies, who were waiting, invisible, hoping to ambush the party. Party got the drop on them (Oracle with Blindsight is on point, sensed some invisible opponents, invisibility purged. The Ice Devils sat back in their illusion for the first round, trapping Reynard (the Cleric) and Talnar (the Druid) in Wall of Ice hemispheres.
Talnar cast Burrow and escaped easily. Reynard had more trouble getting out. Especially when one of the (Advanced!) Ice Devils teleported inside the Wall of Ice. Fun fact! When he's standing in the center, he can reach any point in the hemisphere!
The rest of the party were occupied with the other Ice Devil and the remaining Bone Devils. By the time they thought to help out, Reynard was on the ground after several full attacks. Baba Yaga's Breath of Life boon brought him back, his friends got him to safety, but man those Advanced Ice Devils are tough.
Name: Argenevieve (Genny)
Race: Human (Taldan, from Galt)
Classes/levels: Bard (Silver Balladeer) 8
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: Artrosa, The Mother, Crypt of Wardens
Catalyst: Unlucky saving throws, and ghosts.
The Gory Details: The party pushed straight through the Maiden to reach the crypt, managing to open the door at C2, but not liking the look of that ramp (mentions of dropping temperature and frost inside the dungeon set my Canadian player's heads deliciously abuzz with fears of black ice), and ultimately ignoring it. They handled the squeezing frost giant and the andrazkus (which they have dubbed "overcompensation demons") with ease and reached the crypt.
...It was then that they noticed the magical traps. They didn't quite manage to identify what those traps did, but decided to try and break one by dispelling it. The ghosts were not pleased.
With surprisingly decent tactics for barbarians (this AP has been full of enemies with decent tactics, just not necessarily the skills to back them up), the party had some trouble doing much. The group's bloodrager could go toe-to-toe with one, but the other was wreaking havoc. Also corrupting gaze did a number on them all (I'd never seen it in action before, and didn't expect it to work so well, but this party in particular is 75% Charisma-based, so it hurt).
Well, Genny ran out of things to do that could affect ghost barbarians beyond dutifully keeping up her performance, so she decided to rush to the tomb they'd come out of, hoping to find something of use (she saw the ghost touch longswords the barbarians were using and hoped to find the physical copies).
She triggered a trap. Rolled a 6 point decrease to Constitution, attracted the attention of the ghost that wasn't occupied by the bloodrager, and got killed on the spot by a corrupting touch.
She got raised not long after, as the party decided to push on, hit level 9, and grab relevant spells to do that. They levelled up after the cleric of Lamashtu befriended Mestama's coven and everyone decided "Yeah, we're totally fine with a temporary alliance to take down Jadrenka, she sounds awful". I let them trade with the coven for the relevant spell components, and now Genny is back!
Name: Guarm
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Arctic Druid 13
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: Inside Baba Yaga's Hut, Russia
Catalyst: Unlucky saving throws, Fire-Eyed Skulls.
The Gory Details: When a 1000 chattering skulls with fiery eyes start chattering louder when you reach for a nail in a crucified doll maybe you should stop and think. Unfortunately our Paladin could stand this poor creatures suffering no longer. The resulting 20d6 firestorm engulfed the entire party dropping most of them. You _really_ want to make that save. The Druid took it all and survived but unconscious and on fire. Not just any fire though. No piddling d6 a round this. One round later the 4d6 follow up damage snuffed his still burning corpse out. A few sessions later the party had to sleep outdoors and realized how much they took for granted the Druids ability to prepare a campsite and make it cozy
Name: The whole party. Justin Verres, Xanthippe Euphram, Ray Banashim, Talnar, and Reynard Trellers.
Races: Justin was an Aasimar, everyone else was human.
Classes/Levels:
Justin - Battle Oracle 16
Xan - Bladebound Magus 16
Ray - Witch 16
Talnar - Druid 16
Reynard - Ecclesitheurge Cleric 16
Adventure: The Witch Queen's Revenge
Catalyst: Queen Elvanna is brutal.
The Gory Details: This happened last Friday night, I'm just getting over it. The players are in a worse state and I'm worried that it might take a while for them to forgive me.
If I'm going to blame the victims here, I had to say that the party was poorly prepared. Their spell selection was questionable considering that they must have known that they were going up against a powerful caster. No Freedom of Movement. No Silence. Not much Dispel Magic. One PC had True Sight memorized, but not cast until after the fight started. There are a lot of useful tools for dealing with casters. The party inexplicably decided not to prepare them.
Looking at how Queen Elvanna prepares for the fight, I had a bad feeling even going into this. To put it mildly (and to avoid spoilers), she's probably the most powerful Witch alive (except of course her mother ...), she knows you're coming, she's been watching you, and she can bring it like nothing else in the game can.
The Party ran up the corridor as a group, so everyone got hit by (what's on the door). She actually rolled poorly on the initiative. Most of the party charged into her room and engaged her minions. She was able to get almost everyone within her Polar Midnight. Her Rime polar midnight. Infused with Numbing Chill. It took the party several rounds just to get out of there (and freeing some of their comrades who were frozen). Meanwhile, she spent the rest of the fight blasting the players with her most powerful spells while the Demodands just cast Greater Dispel Magic on whatever PC was irritating them.
It turns out her most powerful spells REALLY HURT. Polar Ray on Talnar when he came too close. Mass Suffocation. Wail of the Banshee. The party was resilient, but the continual spell battering eventually broke them down. Eventually, she ended the fight with a Split Major Hex Frost Tomb, putting down the last two standing party members.
The players were (understandably) upset. But despite their complaints, I don't think this fight is unwinnable. It's a tough fight, sure! Elvanna isn't the Witch Queen of Irrisen by accident. But it's definitely not a fight that you want to have while poorly prepared. PCs can overpower most fights, that's not really an option here.
At some point in the future, I might run Reign of Summer. These PCs are down but not all out - Talnar and Reynard are definitely dead, but the dead can become vengeful ghost NPCs. Ray is dead, but she used a contingency to meld her spirit into her familiar. Maybe she can keep that up indefinitely. Xan and Justin are trapped in a Frost Tomb, and it's entirely possible that they'll stay that way, possibly on display as statues in Whitethrone ... until some plucky adventurers free them in a daring raid.
We'll be playing something else, with a different DM, for a while. But this might have the makings of a fun game once tempers are cooled.
Oo. I had her figured as somewhat of a pushover. Then again, my guys are pretty experienced when it comes to taking out caster bosses.
Using my PbP GM alias for this one, since this is my first PC kill in PbP!
Name: Greadra
Race: Half-Orc
Class/Level: Shifter (Weretouched) 1
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Catalyst: Being the only aggressive PC in the group
The group had been doing pretty well up to this point, but without a dedicated healer there were a few members who were a bit low in health. They killed off the bandits in spectacular fashion, killing 7 bandits in 2 rounds. As they were trying to get information from one of the sick bandits who surrendered at that point, Greadra heard footfalls on the stairs. She let the others know, and the gunslinger took up a spot to shoot whatever was coming.
The two ice skeletons came charging down the stairs. both were damaged a bit, and one dropped the party's ranger unconscious. The gunslinger backed off, and the nature fang druid and his tiger played things cautiously. Greadra charged in and killed a skeleton, taking max damage from the explosion.
Her scent let her know there was an invisible human on the stairs. when Rohkar realized the ruse was up he hit her with his sword, dropping her to -1. the rest of the party freaked out a bit about the exploding skeleton and all moved back to kill the last skeleton and wait to see what the newcomer did.
with no one moving in to challenge him, Rohkar bent down and cast a Death Knell on Greadra who failed her save and died...
the party is still in the middle of this combat with one member dead, and one unconscious but stable. they still have a gunslinger, witch, druid and tiger so they should be fine.
Rohkar is no joke, and if I chose to use negative energy to damage instead of for healing Skellys, i think they would have all died. level 3 evil clerics at this level is just rough
Don't make me talk about the Tatzlwyrm!
A really difficult to spot creature who surprise attacks the less armored PC, has pouncing and grab.
I still think that my GM saved my character there but he hasn't confirmed it.
The problem is, it can't use Pounce. It can't use Charge. It is in difficult terrain and has no abilities to negate difficult terrain on that scale (Nimble only gives it 5 feet of movement through difficult terrain, so not enough for a Charge or Pounce).
In fact, at any point that there's two or more inches of snowfall on the ground, so long as there's no effect such as Feather Step in effect, no character or foe can Charge or take five-foot steps. Even basic snowshoes only reduce the effect of snow to 1.5 move per square (treating all squares like moving diagonally).
Oo. I had her figured as somewhat of a pushover. Then again, my guys are pretty experienced when it comes to taking out caster bosses.
Likewise. Personally I anticipated Elvanna being too easy for them, and added a fight with a Pit Fiend right before her, and added a pair of Squamous Demodand allies to the encounter with her. Turned out to be just right for my group, who were coming in with four Mariliths from Greater Planar Ally on their side (three after the Pit Fiend got through with them). Resulted in a fight that was challenging, but winnable.
My group finally managed to bring Reign of Winter to the end, including epilogue, finishing on 18th level. It has taken us little over 3 years of playing in RL, which translates into 94 sessions each lasting 3 and half hours on average. This is a big deal since it's the first campaign/AP ever that we managed to play from beginning to end. Along the way one player dropped out, two more joined, some PCs were retired, but for the most part group constitution was constant.
Anyway, I'm long overdue on reporting two more PC deaths, last session was played 7 months ago. Both deaths happened during the very last leg of the final module. I heavily modified most of encounters within various demiplanes of Dancing Hut, but tried to keep true to the spirit of the story. Major difference to the original module were way more proactive antagonists - with craploads of Irriseni invaders within Hut, and several opposing adventuring parties trying to locate pieces of Baba Yaga's essence. They were able to do that without need to pass Vigliv's tests simply due to Queen Elvanna handing them a number of "pass keys" for various locations within Hut. Similarly, party was allowed to visit various demiplanes in any way they chose; they even had the opportunity to end AP without going through Elvanna by using Anastasia's blood to unlock one of matryoshka's layers (unfortunately for them, Nazhena Vasiliovna managed to escape with the ritual dagger during the foray on the Island of Buyan, so they would still miss one part of Baba's essence). Elvanna herself proved to be somewhat of push-over, despite being buffed by several mythic levels (freedom of movement+true seeing+communal resist energy FTW; plus, Aroden's spellbane is horrible, horrible spell, even when nerfed).
Dervish's and ranger's death were the final two, with total tally being 13 PC deaths. So, in order of occurence...
Name: Rosom Sigurdsson
Race: Human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: Dervish bard 16/Urban barbarian 1
Adventure: The Witch Queen's Revenge
Location: Ancient Stairs (A9, Grandmother's Cauldron)
Catalyst: angry. trapped demon
Gory details: For this demiplane I switched out Infernal Crocodile (which is very underwhelming mini-boss for this level of play) for unique demon called Princeling Vavakian (combined stats for vavakia demon and Infernal Crocodile, with couple of tweaks), a creature trapped and bound by Baba Yaga millenia ago. Demon was hiding within pool of water and promptly summoned two glabrezu as soon as the party approached on phantom steeds via Infinite Spiral. Wanting to acquire matroyshka containing Baba more than anything, it was hostile from the get go - so the party elected to simply bypass him by running straight for the portal at the top of stairs. They all made it, except for dervish who failed Will save vs glabrezu dazeing aura and battle oracle who got his steed and flight dispelled. Unfortunately for dervish, he was the one nearest to Vavakian and got swallowed whole. The unholy energies within demon's stomach would have dissolved him utterly if not for Baba's boon which bestowed upon him breath of life. This gave him a single opportunity to escape - which he did by critting his way out of stomach, only to get power word stunned moments later. At that point, battle caster managed to reach him, pick him up and run like hell for the portal, getting away just barely.
Name: Yuri the Wanderer
Race: Human (Ulfen)
Classes/levels: ranger 17
Adventure: The Witch Queen's Revenge
Location: Ancient Shrine (M1, Witch Queen's Kurgan)
Catalyst: the obligatory anti-party fight
Gory details: backed up by druidic taiga giant the party hacked, burned, shot and disintegrated their way through Irriseni ice mage cadre riding boreal yrthaks, several Cold Sisters, storm giants, horde of two-headed winter worgs, entrenched Russian soldiers armed with rifles and mortars, plus three pale snipers housed within reinforced guard towers, and finally gained access to the Witch Queen's kurgan. Within the first and biggest room they squared off against Chillblight Crazies - NPC adventuring party consisting of inquisitor Preacher Xerafina, barbarian spriggan, Nazhena Vasiliovna, changeling priestess of Mestama, half giant psyhic ranger with wolf companion and handful of supreme ice golems. Plus several ice mages for good measure. Always outnumbered but never outgunned, "Sons of Heldren" also defeated these servants of Elvanna. However before being massacred Crazies managed to down party's ranger. Yuri got critted by falcata wielding half giant ranger all the way to -40 hp, at which point Baba's boon triggered and breath of life restored him back to the world of living.
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Name: Mara
Race: Halfling
Classes/levels: Unchained Rogue 13
Adventure: Rasputin Must Die!
Location: Ancient Monastery
Catalyst: Multiple rifle crits
Gory details: Upon learning the existence of the blueprints for the World Anchors, the PCs tracked down the location of Rasputin's personal chambers. Some mediocre fly checks followed by similarly mediocre stealth checks found the PCs spotted by the Pale Snipers, who got a surprise round, shooting the nimble halfling once and successfully sniping to remain stealthed. One the first round of combat, the unlucky rogue was on the receiving end of a confirmed 4x crit from one sniper and a Stranger's Shot from another. Unable to enter the tower through the tiny slits the snipers were shooting through, she and the other melee party members flew around to the Monastery entrance to make their way up the tower. Being the first one into the tower, the rogue was the first target the snipers turned on inside the tower. A second 4x crit brought the unlucky rogue to -61 hp with a con score of 16. A breath of life only brought the thrice unlucky rogue to -17 hp. Dead as a doornail. Being that the party has no true divine caster, it fell to the wizard to Limited Wish the rogue back to life, with a single negative level remaining after a second Limited Wish removed one.
Mara returns to Russia with a vengeance and a nasty bullet-hole of a scar below her left eye.