Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
...and beyond?
Man, that's pretty lame.
Man, that's pretty lame.
the Kyri Chronicles - last updated 22 Oct
- Thread starter Plane Sailing
- Start date
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Current character roster, in order of longevity:
Lysander: Singharese Jazumai 8 / Sorcerer 1
K'tan: Cadlanian Mage Savant 8
Trajan: Southlander Fighter 4 / Jazumai 3
Dala: Southlander Sorcerer 8
Anne-Marie: Sword Coast Fighter 6 / Monk 1
Arilyn: Mendonnan Wizard 6
Lysander has been thinking more and more about the plight of the refugees from his country in the shanty town outside Knightsbridge, and he is considering abandoning his adventuring career to lead and care for those people, and give them back a home.
K'tan is itching to get on with what he sees as the big problem - that of the coming mind flayer insurgence - and he is chafing at the time spent on these "trivial side matters".
Trajan has been honing his skills and is nearly ready to attempt to put his old mentors training into practice, and take up the mantle of the Sword Saints once more.
Dala is still a hedonist, out for what thrills he can get out of life. He loves the feel of magic flowing through him, and like any addict wants to get more and more of a buzz. He is also becoming quite a ladies man.
Arilyn considers her life guided by a purpose, and often just stands to listen to the wind. She finds Dala's devil-may-care attitude irritating, and often wishes he would be more serious about things.
====
And a quick recap of the dead so far:
Miranda, Rog4/Sor1 - critically hit with a shocking burst sword wielded by Skrok, a goblin barbarian chief.
Graculous, Ftr5 - cut down by Skrok.
Blodwyn, Clr2 - fell 100ft to her death.
Ynnsfeardh, Mnk4 - brain eaten by a Mind Flayer
Auriel, Dru5 - infected with wereratism, left the party
Kieran, Ftr2 - cut down by goblin hordes
T’kel, Wiz1 - Run through by Skrok.
Sula, Rgr2* - cut down by the charmed captain of a group of caravan guards
Crail, Rog3/Ftr2 - critically impaled by wererats. Raised, killed by shocking grasp wand misfire, raised, killed by poison trap (wyvern venom)
Azrin, Clr5/Mnk1 - nearly bitten in half by fiendish megaraptor and finished off by her own shield other spell, raised, decapitated by Thrumdill, a rogue metamorph (in trollish form with duo-dimensional bears claws in effect)
Syl, Rog3/Sor2 - Killed by collapsing tunnel while running from huge stone dragon, raised, killed by the quarterstaff of Lareth the beautiful in the temple of elemental evil.
I wonder if I've missed any?
Lysander: Singharese Jazumai 8 / Sorcerer 1
K'tan: Cadlanian Mage Savant 8
Trajan: Southlander Fighter 4 / Jazumai 3
Dala: Southlander Sorcerer 8
Anne-Marie: Sword Coast Fighter 6 / Monk 1
Arilyn: Mendonnan Wizard 6
Lysander has been thinking more and more about the plight of the refugees from his country in the shanty town outside Knightsbridge, and he is considering abandoning his adventuring career to lead and care for those people, and give them back a home.
K'tan is itching to get on with what he sees as the big problem - that of the coming mind flayer insurgence - and he is chafing at the time spent on these "trivial side matters".
Trajan has been honing his skills and is nearly ready to attempt to put his old mentors training into practice, and take up the mantle of the Sword Saints once more.
Dala is still a hedonist, out for what thrills he can get out of life. He loves the feel of magic flowing through him, and like any addict wants to get more and more of a buzz. He is also becoming quite a ladies man.
Arilyn considers her life guided by a purpose, and often just stands to listen to the wind. She finds Dala's devil-may-care attitude irritating, and often wishes he would be more serious about things.
====
And a quick recap of the dead so far:
Miranda, Rog4/Sor1 - critically hit with a shocking burst sword wielded by Skrok, a goblin barbarian chief.
Graculous, Ftr5 - cut down by Skrok.
Blodwyn, Clr2 - fell 100ft to her death.
Ynnsfeardh, Mnk4 - brain eaten by a Mind Flayer
Auriel, Dru5 - infected with wereratism, left the party
Kieran, Ftr2 - cut down by goblin hordes
T’kel, Wiz1 - Run through by Skrok.
Sula, Rgr2* - cut down by the charmed captain of a group of caravan guards
Crail, Rog3/Ftr2 - critically impaled by wererats. Raised, killed by shocking grasp wand misfire, raised, killed by poison trap (wyvern venom)
Azrin, Clr5/Mnk1 - nearly bitten in half by fiendish megaraptor and finished off by her own shield other spell, raised, decapitated by Thrumdill, a rogue metamorph (in trollish form with duo-dimensional bears claws in effect)
Syl, Rog3/Sor2 - Killed by collapsing tunnel while running from huge stone dragon, raised, killed by the quarterstaff of Lareth the beautiful in the temple of elemental evil.
I wonder if I've missed any?
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Wulf Ratbane said:
hey, I'm open to suggestions !
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Well, I *am* a bit of a bastard (although not in Dinkledogs league, obviously!)
There was a higher proportion of early deaths since:
(a) lower level characters are more fragile
(b) I was still getting to grips with balancing threats for the players - and critical hits are easy to underestimate
(c) The players tended to not know when to retreat - too much standing in place and hacking, not enough tactical thinking.
Bad luck also has a remarkably detrimental effect on the longevity of characters - I make most of my significant rolls out in the open, and if the dice fall badly (or I get lots of crits in a row)...
There was a higher proportion of early deaths since:
(a) lower level characters are more fragile
(b) I was still getting to grips with balancing threats for the players - and critical hits are easy to underestimate
(c) The players tended to not know when to retreat - too much standing in place and hacking, not enough tactical thinking.
Bad luck also has a remarkably detrimental effect on the longevity of characters - I make most of my significant rolls out in the open, and if the dice fall badly (or I get lots of crits in a row)...
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Where do little fiends come from?
Carefully the party creep into the empty hall at the base of the tower, and slowly move up the stairs. Even though some of them are not particularly skilled at moving silently, the screams from the torture chamber easily cover their movement.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Lysander takes in the situation with a horrified glance and leaps towards the half-fiend bugbear – only to come crashing down as its whip curls around his legs and trips him up. Then a wave of blackness sweeps out from the creature and engulfs the room.
Lysander struggles to his feet and swings out in the darkness, guessing the location of the creature, but it catches him with its whip once again, and once more brings him crashing down before following up with a heft blow from its spiked morningstar. The others cluster on the stairwell, wondering what do do as they hear the sound of oaths and fighting from within the wall of pitch black. The darkness prevents Lysander from dodging properly, and he is clearly being hit regularly by the fiend which has no difficulty in seeing in its own darkness.
Suddenly there is an unearthly scream as one of Lysanders blows strikes home, his blessed scimitar biting deep. The fiend moves back from straight melee combat and starts using its whip from range again to attempt to trip or disarm.
Anne-Marie decides that she can’t let her companion fight alone, and dives into the darkness, guessing by sound roughly were the creature is – and then unleashing her whirlwind attack to strike at all of the space around her (DMs note: I decided that this was a smart move, and that the hard-won whirlwind attack was a good way of making an attack into every surrounding square, even though the 50% miss chance still applied). Lysander readies an action to attack wherever the sound of impact comes from, and between them they score a couple of lucky hits and the creature dies, with curses still on its frothing lips.
The darkness fades away in wisps, and over the ever present moans and tears of the tortured villagers comes the cries “help us, please help us”, “in the name of Asura please help us!”, “it hurts, please make it stop”.
Then one of the women starts screaming shrilly, and as they turn and look at her in mounting horror her flesh starts to crack and fall off, and a half-fiend levers itself out from within her body!
Carefully the party creep into the empty hall at the base of the tower, and slowly move up the stairs. Even though some of them are not particularly skilled at moving silently, the screams from the torture chamber easily cover their movement.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Lysander takes in the situation with a horrified glance and leaps towards the half-fiend bugbear – only to come crashing down as its whip curls around his legs and trips him up. Then a wave of blackness sweeps out from the creature and engulfs the room.
Lysander struggles to his feet and swings out in the darkness, guessing the location of the creature, but it catches him with its whip once again, and once more brings him crashing down before following up with a heft blow from its spiked morningstar. The others cluster on the stairwell, wondering what do do as they hear the sound of oaths and fighting from within the wall of pitch black. The darkness prevents Lysander from dodging properly, and he is clearly being hit regularly by the fiend which has no difficulty in seeing in its own darkness.
Suddenly there is an unearthly scream as one of Lysanders blows strikes home, his blessed scimitar biting deep. The fiend moves back from straight melee combat and starts using its whip from range again to attempt to trip or disarm.
Anne-Marie decides that she can’t let her companion fight alone, and dives into the darkness, guessing by sound roughly were the creature is – and then unleashing her whirlwind attack to strike at all of the space around her (DMs note: I decided that this was a smart move, and that the hard-won whirlwind attack was a good way of making an attack into every surrounding square, even though the 50% miss chance still applied). Lysander readies an action to attack wherever the sound of impact comes from, and between them they score a couple of lucky hits and the creature dies, with curses still on its frothing lips.
The darkness fades away in wisps, and over the ever present moans and tears of the tortured villagers comes the cries “help us, please help us”, “in the name of Asura please help us!”, “it hurts, please make it stop”.
Then one of the women starts screaming shrilly, and as they turn and look at her in mounting horror her flesh starts to crack and fall off, and a half-fiend levers itself out from within her body!
Plane Sailing said:
Remarkably, so do I. I don't know how they've avoided deaths, but they have. Just a few sessions ago, an ambush by four ankhegs took one of the characters to -8 HP in just the surprise round (critical) and left his limp body in the active jaws of one of the creatures. Still, they managed to save him.
I think you're right, though, that low level combined with a reluctance to flee can lead to a deadly environment. My players had no trouble fleeing from the kobolds in their first adventure. It was a bit humiliating for them, fresh off of a 12th-15th level romp through a lich's fortress.
Anyway, great story! Carry on.
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Re: Where do little fiends come from?
Good thinking on her part and good DMing on yours!
A perfect application of the rules... but... did she hit it or not?
Wulf
Plane Sailing said:
Good thinking on her part and good DMing on yours!
A perfect application of the rules... but... did she hit it or not?
Wulf
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Re: Re: Where do little fiends come from?
Unfortunately I'm a bit skimpy on the details for this combat because it happened over a month ago... for one reason or another I got *very* behind on writing up the adventures. I'm pretty sure that she scored one decent hit which lined up Lysander to truly splice its mainbrace (so to speak)
Wulf Ratbane said:
Unfortunately I'm a bit skimpy on the details for this combat because it happened over a month ago... for one reason or another I got *very* behind on writing up the adventures. I'm pretty sure that she scored one decent hit which lined up Lysander to truly splice its mainbrace (so to speak)
