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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 465024" data-attributes="member: 508">Our group just experienced our first 3E TPK, playing through "Headless" from Dungeon #89.  SPOILERS follow:The setup: an evil duergar necromancer cleric of Orcus is constructing a deadgate in an abandoned frost giant fortress.  Once finished, the deadgate will whisk the souls of anyone who dies within a 200-mile radius straight to the Abyss.  The PCs have been receiving prophetic dreams from their respective deities and have learned about the deadgate and its location.  They head there to put a stop to it.Unfortunately, Veridian the druid is slain by one of the retrievers guarding the fortress.  While the others are fighting off the other retrievers, this one slices off her head and scuttles away to add it to the deadgate (which is powered by the decapitated heads of sentient beings).  The PCs make it through the next couple of rooms without incident, but then Tiatianna the sorcerer is slain by a finger of death from a death slaad.  The party is now down to Justaine the cleric and Soriah the fighter, along with Kane the awakened dire wolf (Veridian's animal companion) and Pyracor the toad familiar.  Since time is of the absolute essence (once that deadgate's completed, all bets are off), they decide to press on.The next room, they meet up with a frost giant jarl who tells them a sad tale of how he was defeated by the necromancer cleric who slew his men and cursed him to remain on his throne for eternity, looking upon the slain bodies of his followers.  He begs the PCs to help rid his fortress of the evil, and for once, the players buy into his story hook, line, and sinker.  (They're ususally a more distrusting bunch.)  This is unfortunate, since the jarl is lying his eyes out; he quizzes them on their capabilities ("Do you think you have enough combat spells ready to take out a necromancer?"), and they blab about their weaknesses to him like he was their long-lost best friend ("Well, we lost most of our offensive firepower when our druid and sorcerer were slain.  I have some spells left, but they're mostly low-level at this point.").  [It was exceedingly difficult to keep a straight face at this point, let me tell you.]  So, having heard all he needs to know, he calls for the attack, and a bunch of the dead bodies on the floor rise up (they're frost giant mohrgs), as does he - it turn out he was lying about being stuck in his throne, as well.We played it out until the final end, but the conclusion was foregone.  I didn't even use the simulacra of the evil necromancer (riding nightmares, no less) that were supposed to be part of the ambush.  They went down fighting to the last, uh, being: Pyracor lasted the longest, and took out a badly-damaged mohrg with a potion of fire breath before getting squished.  TPK.Of course, I realised I had an opportunity I don't always have.  The next adventure, instead of having everyone roll up new PCs, their old ones "wake up" in the Abyss in front of Orcus (the deadgate having since been completed, using their own heads!).  They have absolutely no memories of their former lives, and Orcus informs them that they are demons who tried to overthrow his rule.  Rather than kill them outright, he has decided to let them earn back their true positions at his side.  He had their essences put into the feeble humanoid forms they now wear (the better to infiltrate humanoid society), and they must perform missions for him.  If they're successful, they might one day be returned to their "normal" forms and be given back their demonic memories.  Orcus even went so far as to rename them: Justaine is now Germtongue, Tiatianna is Titmouse, Soriah is Snakeheart, and Veridian is Vilechild.  Kane, the awakened dire wolf, was renamed Karcass, and that proven to be an appropriate name as Orcus turned him into an undead mohrg with a snap of his fingers as an example of what can happen when you cross him.  The same fate awaits the PCs if they fail in their mission.So far, it's been fun.  Their first act upon being sent to the Prime Material Plane in their planar bodies was to kill two paladins of Hieroneous to gain their armor and weapons.  Those guys are going to need a whole lot of atonements if they ever get their true memories back!  (And then they're going to have to head back to the deadgate and shut it down before they do anything else.)Johnathan</blockquote>

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