2012 PC Bodycount thread

Just deceased...

Quasimoda, 13th level paranoid orc-drow wizard/barbarian gestalt mix in an "Adventures from the other side" homebrew 3.5 setting that's all about humor and weird situations.

We were taking on an assembly of dragons who only wanted a nice day at the spa. Granted, they were an evil assembly of dragons, but that made the idea even worse.

Quasimoda had resistance to acid and fire and some damage reduction. The GM said that's why there were some bones left.

To make matters worse, the surviving rogue/sorcerer just found out after the battle that those were not the dragons we were looking for.

Tragically a pair of PCs died in today's game. They were originals to the campaign (4 other originals have retired), and died in depths of the Fallen in Sharn.

They were clearing out an area to build a temple to The Forgotten One, and found the petrified Radiant Idol and his insane cultists. The Idol could animate his petrified form and had a horrendous burst of radiant and psychic damage.

So after a bruising battle that left 4 PCs in the negatives and the cleric dazed, Zek the Assassin and Jin the Ranger bled out on the floor with all foes defeated.

The PCs are dead - long live the PCs!

I have another PC death to report. While playing my modern S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, Sargent Booth tragically lost his life.

Eschewing more modern weapons for the simplicity, reliability, and low cost of a bolt action rifle, he took on the role as the group sniper.

Spotting four guards on the horizon, he took aim from over 100 meters without a scope, and aimed specifically for the head. Rolling low and missing his first shot, he alerted the guards, which forced initiative. Luckily rolling high, he went again, but again rolled low on his headshot and missed. The guards then returned fire, hitting him twice in the vitals with AK74s, killing him instantly.

There's a funny afterstory to this, but it's not really related to PC death as much as it is to dick players, so I detailed it in this thread.

RIP Sgt Booth.

My Mage: the Awakening character died last weekend.

He was a drunken, homeless Native American who was neither smart nor capable of holding his tongue. He was tons of fun to play.

He died in what was a hair shy of a tpk. The dm is still working on threat assessment- this has been the highest-lethality White Wolf campaign I've been involved in, averaging over 1 pc death/session so far.

Glabbel, 5th level acrobatic dwarf bard (part of a troupe) in a recently started aerial campaign. The airship we were on was under attack, and a fire started which made it necessary to abandon ship. Somehow Glabbel found himself without anyone to carry him off, and he had used all his spells. Thinking quickly, he took the balancing staff from one of his friends and used it to jump over at one of the enemy's ships that seemed strangely abandoned. Anything to get off the burning trap of a ship.

He made the jump, then fell to his unresurrectable death because that ship, as most of the others of the attacking fleet, was just an illusion.

Someone drew me a frogger style picture with airships and jumping dwarfs afterwards.

Clearly one of the more memorable deaths. Next PC will be an almost 100% elf with very little "aasimar" blood (the are called differently and work differently but all have wings) so it is more an elf with wings only for gliding. Will still be the only party member unable to fly but at least I can glide this time!

Ethshyadenthale, formerly a NE Elf Lich Wizard (Necromancer) 20

and

Adandy Kenan, formerly a LG Half-Celestial Aasimar Cleric/Monk 17/3.

The system being Pathfinder.

The 5 PCs had worked together to trap a "only one in existence at a time", life-destroying monster at the centre of a heavily-fortified demiplane (that cost millions of gold and a lot of favours to build and load with traps, guards, magic, and monsters) which they called Pandora. Eth had already gotten paranoid about the limitations of his lifespan, falling from N to NE and undergoing the Lichification process, hiding it from his team. Until now.

The wizard got obsessed with protecting Pandora at all costs, growing hostile and mistrustful of his former teammates. Eventually the cleric called him out on this, discovered his lich status and evil alignment and the two of them fought to the death. The lich won. Then knowing that the other three would definitely find out what had happened, he went after them, intending to turn them into powerful undead under his control and then resume guarding the plane himself. He lost that fight and was destroyed.

Of the other three, the Rogue/Ranger/Fighter Shark Lord blamed herself for not seeing it coming and went into self-imposed exile, and the Cavalier/Barbarian blamed the weakness of his teammates and challenged the last remaining of the five, the Druid/Sorcerer/Mystic Theurge for the position of sole guardian of the plane. He lost, leaving the theurge as the only one of the original five still guarding Pandora, though he and the rogue are still alive, leading a crusade against Hell and adventuring solo in a gas giant near the far end of the solar system respectively.

The dead cleric is now a Star Archon, still allied with the theurge but often preoccupied by the affairs of Heaven. The dead lich's obsession was so strong that he rose again as a Winterwight, losing his spellcasting power but still being very powerful. He stands guard where he fell, just outside the door to the very centre of Pandora, acting as a last line of defense, as well as rendering the deepest level of an otherwise good-aligned plane sickeningly evil.

And that was the end. These characters have been retired, I'm mapping out Pandora in detail, and maybe one day our group will take a new batch of characters and adventure in this dungeon that we've made.

Had 2 PCs chopped up by Nerathi Dread Warriors in my 4e Southlands game last week - Uncia the Shaman & a temp Ranger marauder guy. Same campaign 1 session previously a dead temp PC Maari; killed by Nerathi rebel soldiers; 2 sessions previously, a PC Nathir drowned trying to swim down a nasty river. 4 this year so far.

Loudwater game, Naarash the demon killed the bard Esmerelda, but she got raised.

6 days later, running Pathfinder Beginner Box 'Eastmark', the dragon Black Fang killed 3/4 PCs, inc the same player as Maari & Esmerelda - my friend James is getting a bit annoyed.

I count therefore 7 perma-deaths & 1 temp so far this year.

Alas, Bonny, our party's Bard was killed in an epic battle against Kalak's shadow in the Gray. She will be missed.

Poor little inquisitor

Well in my group I was running a tucker's kobold dungeon with a party of ten. Four of us had been tripped, one of us grappled, and the same one disarmed. Our inquinsitor tried to grapple one of the kobolds, and failed to do much besides move the kobolds leg. In response the kobold smashed its leg into the inquisitor's stomach. Inquisitor again fails the grapple check to damage the kobold. The kobold then drew it's falchion and impaled it into the inquisitor's chest, critting and dealing just enough damage to knock the inquisitor out. It then pummeled her with it's fists till she died. A lvl seven inquisitor was murdered in single combat by a lvl 3 kobold.


Also, the party's hellknight ate the ranger's pet cheetah before the battle, because the ranger's player would not pay attention to the session at all.

Not a PC, so this is an honorable mention.

Weep, men of valor, for poor Larold is dead! Taken from his boat by the villainous Vignar the Butcher, a bugbear of fearsome reputation, he was brought up into the hills above Mythgraven. A ransom note was delivered, and a trail was left for our heroes to follow.

Larrin, the daughter of Larold's wife and an elf from the Elfwood, had always been fond of her stepfather. When she heard of his kidnapping, she and the other Champions of Kerwindale were quick to attend. They chased Vignar and his men to a camp, where the fiendish bugbear had chained poor Larold to himself. There was no way to strike the bugbear without killing the poor man!

With great tenacity, the warriors did battle; some engaged the hobgoblins Vignar had brought with him, while others cut the chains to free the hostage. Striking the final blow to free her own stepfather, Larrin picked him up and carried him away from the cruel Vignar, taking two savage wounds for her trouble. She set him down at a safe distance, and stood beside him, fighting off the enemy.

But fate was not smiling on Larrin; one of the archers fired a noxious mixture, and she was forced to make an attack against someone next to her. The only possible target was her father.

The roll?

20.

So rest in peace, Larold the fisherman. May your stepdaughter one day reconcile her terrible guilt.