I am presently running Burnt Offerings from Rise of the Runelords and I have run into a difficulty. In order to prolong the game’s survivability, I gave the party a number of “death saves.” These simply allowed the character to automatically stabilize at -10 HP and survive. In this way, their compatriots could heal them, or at least drag them to safety. The players appreciated them and the system worked fine.
Then they met Nualia and her yeth hound. And another wounded yeth hound that had previously escaped. And Brathazmus, who no longer had any weapons (they had been stolen while he was unconscious), but who did have a huge chip on his shoulder. And the party was only 2nd level.
They actually did pretty well, considering their ridiculously horrendous luck. They managed to kill one hound, seriously wound the other, kill Brathazmus (he was still fairly badly wounded from before), and, though they didn’t know it, got Nualia to under half HP.
But they all went down, four in Nualia’s presence, one fled from the yeth hound howl and ended up in the pit under the glaive-wielding statues. Now what should I do?
The idea behind death saves was that they aren’t dead. It would be lousy of me to say, “Sorry, you all went down and you have no death saves left, so she lets the hound eat all of you. Game over.” But how can I “save” them from a narrative point of view?
I realized that Nualia would have reason to keep prisoners as sacrifices. That’s pretty easy. But what about all their gear? What about healing? For the latter, I’m considering just hand waving it and giving them their HP back. But the former…I want to avoid the silly cliché that she conveniently leaves it 10 feet outside their cells in a pile, but I don’t want them to have to fight too hard or long to get their gear back either, as it would also stink to have them live just to escape prison and die ignominiously without weapons.
If I hand wave healing, the last character could be a savior, as Nualia has no reason to suspect where he is. Even so, though, his great sword was dropped when he was panicked, so he’d still be without a primary weapon.
Please help!
Thanks in advance!
C
Then they met Nualia and her yeth hound. And another wounded yeth hound that had previously escaped. And Brathazmus, who no longer had any weapons (they had been stolen while he was unconscious), but who did have a huge chip on his shoulder. And the party was only 2nd level.
They actually did pretty well, considering their ridiculously horrendous luck. They managed to kill one hound, seriously wound the other, kill Brathazmus (he was still fairly badly wounded from before), and, though they didn’t know it, got Nualia to under half HP.
But they all went down, four in Nualia’s presence, one fled from the yeth hound howl and ended up in the pit under the glaive-wielding statues. Now what should I do?
The idea behind death saves was that they aren’t dead. It would be lousy of me to say, “Sorry, you all went down and you have no death saves left, so she lets the hound eat all of you. Game over.” But how can I “save” them from a narrative point of view?
I realized that Nualia would have reason to keep prisoners as sacrifices. That’s pretty easy. But what about all their gear? What about healing? For the latter, I’m considering just hand waving it and giving them their HP back. But the former…I want to avoid the silly cliché that she conveniently leaves it 10 feet outside their cells in a pile, but I don’t want them to have to fight too hard or long to get their gear back either, as it would also stink to have them live just to escape prison and die ignominiously without weapons.
If I hand wave healing, the last character could be a savior, as Nualia has no reason to suspect where he is. Even so, though, his great sword was dropped when he was panicked, so he’d still be without a primary weapon.
Please help!
Thanks in advance!
C
