Eh, a little death might be good for my group.
Welp.
Just a reminder of my group:
Gareth Carter - Human male swordmage, Yerasol War Veteran
Reginald Battersea - Human male artificer
Victor Bays - Human male wizard
Casimiro del Garra - Longtooth Shifter male Monk/ shaman
So, we left off last time with the characters triggering the final two traps. They saw the undead around them come back to life, and the waters start roaring toward them from the fake seal room. They realized almost immediately how dangerous this was - but they still took their sweet time trying to get out.
They spent almost three rounds fighting off undead before they decided to run, by which point the water was already knee deep around them - which made running even more difficult. They ran back the way they had come, through the room with the illusory floor, which they had deactivated, so instead I threw a few of the floating orbs at them in this room, along with the mummies. Again, they fought instead of running, and since they were terrified of the crushing earth trap, they tried to run around the other way, and ended up trapped between the floating orbs and the three ancient orc mummies.
Only through a crafty use of a daily did Gareth Carter survive, and he was only able to carry one teammate out - and Reginald Battersea was in his path to escape. He had to leave the other two behind. Casimiro del Garra and Victor Bays were killed inside the Ziggurat of Apet.
So, Carter hustled out of the Ziggurat, and found himself surrounded by undead, and immediately began climbing up the Ziggurat. Once he got to the top, he fed a potion to his wounded ally, and they began preparing for the worst. This is when the Voice of Rot showed up, fought off the undead, and gave the two remaining members of Unit 42 his charge.
After he was finished, the flood washed the bodies of their companions out of the Ziggurat, and they slowly came back to life, feeling a little bit "slimy", as Victor's player put it.
The Voice of Rot told them finally that they had more to learn from the Ziggurat, and slunk back into the swamp. They decided to try and take an extended rest outside the Ziggurat - which I let them do, before heading back in. The insubstantial stuff is very frustrating for them, so I wanted to make sure they learned how to fight against the thoughtform, if nothing else - plus, I spent a bit of time preparing the puzzle in that room, and wanted them to try it out.
Carter led the way to the rainbow puzzle room, and they stepped inside to get a good view of it, which is when we called the session for the night. Next time, they will start right there.
- Interestingly, I think the players of the characters who died were a little disappointed when they were risen from the dead. They both described it as feeling a bit "slimy", which I told them was appropriate, given the circumstances of their resurrections, and the entity who had granted them new life. They are servants of the Voice of Rot now, and they'll have to deal with that for the time being.
- During the fight out of the Ziggurat, they were extremely frustrated. It was good for them, though. They were challenged a lot more in this sequence than they are used to, and it forced them to think through their actions differently.
- Afterward, however, all they talked about was ways they could have done it differently, and more successfully, which is
very good! It meant they realized that, even though it was a very difficult challenge, it wasn't
completely unfair (though, it was pretty unfair, and is kind of designed as a death trap).
- The moment when they were trapped between the orbs and the mummies, in a tiny hallway, with no healing left, and the water crashing down over them, was one of the best moments of the campaign so far. The fact that two of them actually made it out alive was even better. So good.