Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Jedric0202 Nov 24, 2014 3:04:56	Well, it finally happened--the Cult of the Dragon finally claimed its first player character.     In Episode 3, the party came to the narrow hallway leading to Frulam's quarters after killing several cultists and mercenaries.  They heard the Wearer call out from within that she knew that they approached, and they had best surrender as reinforcements were even now converging on their position.  She then proceeded to cast spiritual guardians, filling the room in front of the party with demonic spirits.  The group's resident cleric said, "Ha! She just wasted a spell! That will only last 10 minutes, so we can just wait her out."  So they did--or tried.   You see, IMC, Langdedrosa is madly in love with Frulam, but he doesn't know how to tell her.  He will, however, do whatever it takes to protect her, so when an acolyte informed him that a party of adventurers had cornered Frulam, he and his beserker bodyguards (read: way more badass than they have right to be), circled around the dungeon post-haste.   Thus, the party called what they thought was a bluff (and my attempt as their friend to save them), but instead got caught in between Frulam's bodyguards and Langdedrosa's death machines.  Realizing their error, they retreated to the now-empty treasure room (with its one and only entrance/exit) and decided to make a stand.     The first wave threw them off-guard.  A lone beserker charged in with Frulam's blessing of, "Go with Tiamat's protection," but as everyone declared their readied actions to tear him a new one, only the fighter/rogue was able to overcome his compulsion to not attack the barbarian (thanks, sanctuary), thus wasting several reactions and readied actions.  When the rest of the forces charged in, they quickly surrounded the cleric and the warlock while the sorceror stood in the corner slinging sleep spells (and rolling terribly).  The odds seemed to be stacking up against the PCs, so Langdedrosa called in and told his lackeys to leave the warlock to him (they had previously dueled in Greenest, and the warlock had insulted the half-dragon before being put down hard).     As Langdedrosa entered the room, he arrogantly turned his back on the cleric/rogue, daring him to make an opportunity attack in the middle of what he considered to be a duel of honor amongst the chaos of battle.  Well, the trickster cleric decided that it was an opening he just couldn't refuse (despite several loud objections from everyone at the table), and poor Ferris plunged his rapier into the great warrior's back.     'Twas but a scratch.    The honorable (and hot-tempered) Langdedrosa turned on the poor half-elf cleric in a rage, cutting him down with three attacks (it has been previously established that he often uses Action Surge when anger overtakes him) before moving back to the warlock with his final blow.  Against the waves of attackers (and the sudden loss of their only real healer) the group had now way to revive their companion, and so Ferris died not in a blaze of glory, but quietly, huddled in the corner, as his lifeblood slowly left him.   The party, with some clever maneuvering, acrobatics, and spellcraft did manage to escape the hatchery that day, but sadly the corpse of their kind-of-sort-of friend Ferris (it's a very mercenary group) was left to the Cult, who promptly discarded said corpse into the wyrmling pit to be devoured by the newborn dragonlings.   All that to say, "Damn! This is one tough adventure!"
#2 Kentus Nov 24, 2014 4:10:26	Great character dead story-wise, even though it may pains, but it brings more drama to the table. Hope Ferris' player will be OK and get a new character, which will die as great at this one. ;)
#3 Grazel Nov 24, 2014 7:18:46	Heh took you longer. My first death was during the fight with Cyanwrath in episode 1.   The headstrong dragonborn fighter (mere level 1 still) steps up to the challenge. He wins initiative. He swings his greatsword and lands a critical. He does just shy of half of Cyanwrath's HP in a single hit. Cyanwratch roars in pain and lashes out with his breath weapon, turning the poor copper dragonborn (if only he'd had ligtning resist instead of acid) into fried lizard due to a failed save. There was enough damage done to drop the fighter from full to more than negative full hp so wasn't even death saves. I was nice and because they'd done so well the rest of the night (including wiping out the enemies around the temple of Chauntea before they could break into it) that I had the cleric of the temple use raise dead on him. The party also did amazingly well in the raider camp the next session (the latest) and it should be interesting to see how they fair on the return to the hatchery (they're now level 3, almost 4 as I'm not using milestone rules and they took out around 49 kobolds during the raid!)
#4 Synjin Nov 24, 2014 9:20:15	My party almost bought it in the Mill, but there was a good luck saving grace.   Halfling Rogue1 Dwarf Cleric2 Halfling Bard1   Outside the mill, the PCs approached cautiously, on the south side of the river, in the house just to the SE of the mill. From there, they launched the surprise attack agaisnt x2 Cultists, and x1 Acolyte. No issues there, and the PCs didn't get a scratch. By the time they entered the Mill however, all the spell slots were expended, and neither the Bard, nor Cleric, had any healing Cantrips selected. They were all offense or buff.   Inside the mill, they all failed their perception checks against the ambush. x1 Cultist and x3 Guards attacked.   Everyone was rolling really terrible last night, including me as the DM. The Guards AC of 16 was helping them tremendously, and I was just rolling bad for them. It was a standoff stalemate for a couple rounds as one of the PCs would take the Dodge action and avoid a hit, then one would take the Help action, but the dice weren't cooperating for the PCs, even with Advantage.  The rounds went like that probably about 3-4 times, and then one of the Guards crit against the Bard and he goes down. The PCs take out the Cultist, now it's 3 Guards vs. 2 PCs.  A couple minor hits on the Guards ensues.   Bard fails his first Death Save, then the Rogue goes down. Cleric finally takes out one of the Guards, but now it's 2:1 against the Cleric. Rogue makes his Death Save. Bard makes his second one.   Guards bum rush the Cleric and make a good Grapple check. One restrains the Cleric while the other goes back up into the loft to retrieve some rope to tie him up. (Bard fails death save. Now it's one good, two bad. Rogue makes his third save and stableizes but is unconcious.) Cleric makes his STR check to escape, and succeeds. Now it's a fistacuffs fight. Guard and Cleric spend a round by themselves throwing punches. Second Guard comes back down and hacks at Cleric, dropping him. So the entire party is down. Rogue is stable but unconcious. Bard by now has two fails, and two successes. This last roll is for his life......   BOOM, natural 20. Bard is now awake and has 1 HP. He plays dead, staying perfectly still, until he hears the Guards saying they should make sure they're dead and head back to the Keep. Bard has the 'Minor Illusion' cantrip, and by good fortune, the spell has no verbal component to it. I have him roll a "Slight of Hand" check against the Guards' Passive Perception. He rolls a 17, and the spell goes off unnoticed. The spell has the voice of the Acolyte come from outside and orders the Guards outside to "Help with the rest of them.".   The Guards head outside, and find nothing. Bard leaps up and makes a good Medicine check on the Cleric to stableize him and frantically looks around for anything to aid them if the Guards come back. Just then, he hears a commotion outside and then hears the guards run away. The re-enforcements that Governor Nighthill promised had arrived.   It would have been a TPK had the Bard not rolled that crit20 and gotten his 1 HP back and cast that spell.   I've never seen my players so tense and hanging on every roll. It was great!
#5 Jedric0202 Nov 24, 2014 9:54:47	I have to say, I was skeptical of 5e's death rules at first (I didn't think anyone could ever make it to 3 death saving throws before being healed), but I have seen the error of my ways.  You should never underestimate the power of a natural 1.
#6 Synjin Nov 24, 2014 10:21:32	Yeah, seems to be working pretty well here too.
#7 Theros Nov 24, 2014 10:23:50	Great story! The cleric could still be alive. He has 3 death saves, maybe one of the cultists stabilize him so they could torture information out of him later.   The Frulam and Cyanwrath encounters are the two toughest in the dungeon, I feel sorry for your party to have to fight both at once. There lucky they made it out at all. Those beserkers arn't no joke.
(Reply to #7) Jedric0202	Theros wrote: