Rappan Athuk: Ravage of The Unusual Heroes!

[Ziona]

Re: Re

Hmmmm. The carnage was a little too much for me. As a player, I don't think I would have been too happy with that villain. Grumstrong was far too tough and requiring battle rezzes is just a little too Everquestish for my tastes.

In my opinion, PC's shouldn't die so often. They are heroes of the land. They should be able to handle their foes without all of them being decimated.

Glad you won, but damn, too many deaths for my tastes.

Yeah, it was gruesome and it was alot of death, but it was also a major battle. We went into that battle wondering if we would survive, or if it would end up a TPK. Luckily, some of us survived.

Inmir was unconcious, and Spiderfang ended up bleeding to death because no one could get to him in time. Drizzt didn't use Guen (and had been scaled down a bit), so he fell, and the others...well, Grumstorg just ripped them apart! He made a nasty crit on Zellian, and he was just plain vicious, as any major villian should be. We aren't epic level yet, but we knew the big bad would probably be, so we readied ourselves to face him.

As for all the rezzing, I hadn't really thought about the fact that I had a Rod of Ressurection until we were half way through the night. I started going through the list of objects in my backpack and saw that I had a Rod of Rezz...I think it came as quite a surprise to Xaltar as well. Hehe.

But like Dent had said, in the past our PC deaths have been a result of very bad fumbles, very good crits (for Xaltar) or poor choices on our part. This time, it was all out war. We expected death, and I knew I could probably rezz someone if I had to, but the Rod was something I remembered midgame.

At any rate, I hope you are all enjoying the story. Tonight is game night, so the epilogue will follow before too long.

 

[Xaltar]

1) Actually, I think Xaltar was too easy on the party. Big tough baddies should always kill the casters first. Grumstorg almost exclusively focused on the tanks, very foolish. But hey, only big tough SMART baddies do what I just said, and this is an Orcan Chosen Of Gruumsh. I laugh at his -4 to Intelligence. Can't expect Chosen Of Cyric quality, here, really.

Well, I was finding that with his belt of spell resistance, he didn't have that much to worry about from the caster. The tanks were the ones doing the only damage, so I tried to take down the heavy hitters as quickly as possible.

I will post Grumstorg's stats as soon as I get a chance. He was about 22nd or 23rd level. There were party members in the 14-15 level range, but the average seemed to be 13th.

 

[MasterOfHeaven]

Well, I was finding that with his belt of spell resistance, he didn't have that much to worry about from the caster. The tanks were the ones doing the only damage, so I tried to take down the heavy hitters as quickly as possible.

I will post Grumstorg's stats as soon as I get a chance. He was about 22nd or 23rd level. There were party members in the 14-15 level range, but the average seemed to be 13th.

I was speaking not only of the arcane casters, but the divine spellcasters as well. I was very surprised Grumstorg didn't immediately target Ziona once he saw her raising fellow party members. But again, this isn't that surprising when you consider Grumstorg was a Chosen Of Gruumsh and an Orc. All in all, it was probably more "in character" for him to just go nuts and not use smart tactics.

 

[Celtavian]

Re

I am enjoying the overall story. That Chosen of Grumsh was just a little insane. I just can't believe no one was pissed off as a player. You must have a rather tolerant group Xaltar.

I would have caught holy hell as a DM if I sent that against my players, especially if a pile of them had died. My players die to often and they just stop bringing their characters back and make new ones. The primary excuse I get is the game loses its fictional hero feel when the characters die too often.

Glad the party won. That Chosen of Grumsh was sickeningly tough. I to would love to see that things stats if Xaltar would post them.

 

[MasterOfHeaven]

IIRC, the original encounter from the module is far tougher. I believe Xaltar toned it down so it's actually winnable. As for characters dying, well... Adventuring isn't supposed to be a safe profession. Considering the vast wealth and power you gain from it, the only reason countless people don't do it is the fact you have a very high chance of dying by entering the profession. But, that's how I see it. YMMV.

 

[Ziona]

Last night's game went very smoothly. I will be working on the epilogue for the battle of Rappan Athuk, and then we're off to The City of the Spider Queen!

BTW, I know Xaltar is going to be posting Grumstorg's stats for those of you requesting it. We're also trying to work on character sheets, pics, etc. for a better understanding on the characters and villians.

 

[Xaltar]

IIRC, the original encounter from the module is far tougher. I believe Xaltar toned it down so it's actually winnable.

My gaming group had pretty much enough of Rappan Athuk by the time we started hitting the third book. So, I just made up my own ending.

From this point on, I would assume that the resulting group will be more permanent. If a character dies now, they will likely be resurrected. Although I'm sure that excessive level loss would cause a player to retire their character.

 

[Hammerhead]

Will the Black Fist of Justice return to the Unusual Heroes? And will the red-skinned meanie leave and stop destroying stuff? How do you handle if both of someone's characters survived?

 

[madriel]

What a great, gruesome final battle.

 

[Horacio]

I want to read that emotive epilogue