HYPERBOREA » Tpk!

Handy Haversack · 9/15/2014 9:09 am

It's always such a strange feeling when it happens . . . things just suddenly start going really fast and then you realize, "Oh, man, they might not be getting out of this one." A small error here, a panicked reaction there, and bam! The giant ticks feast tonight!

The party was still basically low level: one charcter was up to 3rd (Demostrate the Amazon pyromancer, from our intial party); Euthymios the Kimmerian cataphract (the only other original PC suriviving) was 2nd for the second time after some wight dealings. I think a couple of the magician was second level; first-level warlock (death soldier), Pict berserker, Pict monk, and priestess.

They had dealt with Barratarria Games The Ruined Hamlet / Terror in the Gloaming--and mainly "dealt" with it by unleashing and then vaguely containing a scourge of wights before letting the necromacer who had been jerking their chains run them out of the valley. Thieves guild was certainly disruted, though, once the undead had moved in, so they had that going for them. They also took out 20 orcs and a swine daemon, which was pretty good for being 1st level and having one magic weapon among them.

So after training, drinking, debauching, researching various things, they set off the see theLady of the Black Fief to help with her troubles. I figured they should have some fun along the way--esp. since I hadn't figured out what was going to be going on in the Black Fief yet!--so I strung together a couple of One-Page Dungeon winners: [url=https://content.wuala.com/contents/kensanata/Dokumente/1PDC%202013/Andreas%20Folkesten,%20Temple%20of%20the%20Demon%20Speakers.pdf/?dl=1]Temple of the Demon Speakers[/url] and [url=https://content.wuala.com/contents/kensanata/Dokumente/1PDC%202013/Mike%20Monaco,%20The%20Misty%20Pond.pdf/?dl=1]The Misty Pond[/url]. The first went fine. They killed a mummy! I was pretty impressed (though not by their opening the mummy door in the first place). Then the CG priestess of Yonn-Deh summoned a daemon! Which dealt with the necromancer back at the other end of the Gal Hills, so . . . I hadn't decided how much XP a CG characters gets for sending a daemon to take out a ninth-level necromancer and a bunch of wights. Fortunately, now I don't have to!

So with the daemon loose on the world for a day and a half after swearing not to harm the party, they set off into the Misty Pond. Fun is had. Lotuses are explored. Zombies attack from under lily pads. Pretty standard stuff. Then I decided to replace the wrecked long boat with Gus L's Wreck of tthe Anubis. A wrecked river paddle boat with a deranged plant wizard seemed nicely AS&SH to me.

So they defeated but used up a lot of spells on a giant catfish that tried to take down the cataphract. And then . . .worse things happened between the death soldier and the catfish. Let's just say I think I might stop putting love potions in the game.

And then the boat. Flaked and rotting gilt. Velvets and brocades degrading into the muck of the swamp. Strange plants whose roots are tiny humanoids that scream when they are disturbed. Carvings and decoration in a style no one recognizes. And then the second room had giant ticks in the rotted brocade of the ceiling. Which got surprise. And had 2+4 HD. And were AC 3. And do automatic damage after hitting.

And ten rounds later, that was it. The monk slammed the door and tossed the last of them into the lake. The magician was unconscious next to him but alive. And the monk was unwounded, whole, ready to at least get her companion out of the swamp so they could mourn the rest of the party. But then a chill went through her. Fever seemed to suddenly rage and flare behind her eyes. The living smells of the swamp began to overwhelm her. And she could not heal herself of whatever disease it was as she had already used that power on someone else. A violent seizure shook her and spilled her across the deck. Her vision began to fade.

And if anything other than plants and decay had been watching an hour later, it would have seen the monk's body suddenly rise up, eyes vacant, fingers clenched into talons. Nearby, the magician lay, still unconscious. The zombie that once had been a monk began to feed . . .

And that was it!

So weird, how it all comes tumbling down.

Game on, though! I went inside and grabbed the first issue of Wizards, Mutants, Lazer Pistols, and they rolled up characters. They were insulting cultists in the great dungeon of Kihago half an hour later.

Circle of life.

Last edited by Handy Haversack (9/15/2014 9:21 am)

Yora · 9/15/2014 11:07 am

That's moments when I would cheat a little. Everybody going out in a blaze of glory is cool. Two characters dying because of one failed save against disease not so much. Letting the monk survive despite the dice would be one option.
The other one might be to start a new group of characters while leaving the fate of the old ones uncertain. One was unconscious, the other blacked out from something. When the other characters went down, you don't necessarily have to tell the players immediately who is unconscious and who is dead. Then the new group could be send to look for them, with the players having no clue what they might find.

Though that probably works best in a game where the group was on some mission and there is still unresolved business, which the players might want to see completed. With a group of glory-seeking fortune hunters, screwing up and realizing it was your own fault might very well be a much more appropriate ending.

Agricola · 9/15/2014 11:39 am

Circle of Life indeed! Sounds like everybody had fun! Sometimes it is amazing how quickly everything can turn.

Last edited by Agricola (9/15/2014 11:40 am)

Chainsaw · 9/15/2014 3:19 pm

Fun read! Hey, sometimes it happens and sometimes it's not a glorious end. Roll some new regulators and mount up!

We almost had TPKs in our second and third sessions. My players already have spare PCs rolled as part or the initial set-up, so we would have jumped back in pretty quickly.

Blackadder23 · 9/15/2014 4:17 pm

Yora wrote:
Though that probably works best in a game where the group was on some mission and there is still unresolved business, which the players might want to see completed.

People who are playing Monopoly want to get rich. People who are playing Risk want to rule the world. Sometimes the dice dictate otherwise. Why should an RPG be any different than any other game? If you can't handle losing you shouldn't play.

Succeeding in an RPG is cheap if the referee gives the PCs plot armor. It only means something if anyone can die at any time. Then you'll know you've actually triumphed, instead of having it handed to you.

Handy Haversack · 9/15/2014 4:31 pm

Blackadder23 wrote:
Yora wrote:
Though that probably works best in a game where the group was on some mission and there is still unresolved business, which the players might want to see completed.
People who are playing Monopoly want to get rich. People who are playing Risk want to rule the world. Sometimes the dice dictate otherwise. Why should an RPG be any different than any other game? If you can't handle losing you shouldn't play.

Succeeding in an RPG is cheap if the referee gives the PCs plot armor. It only means something if anyone can die at any time. Then you'll know you've actually triumphed, instead of having it handed to you.

Heh. The Boneyard--character sheets of dead characters--is starting to take up too much room in the box set! The players have punched above their weight class quite a bit--jail break, wights, swine daemon, mummy, giant catfish, and they've done well to survive at all through those. I guess I didn't expect a TPK to happen from ticks!

But as you say, next one up! We mourned for a minute and got back on the horse. Er, cow. Er, electric blue invulnerable bovine avatar of the dungeon. Also: creepy old boatman. So, yeah, they landed on their feet!

9/16/2014 1:01 am

Blackadder23 wrote:
People who are playing Monopoly want to get rich. People who are playing Risk want to rule the world. Sometimes the dice dictate otherwise. Why should an RPG be any different than any other game? If you can't handle losing you shouldn't play.

Succeeding in an RPG is cheap if the referee gives the PCs plot armor. It only means something if anyone can die at any time. Then you'll know you've actually triumphed, instead of having it handed to you.

Pretty much all of this. When I'm playing in an RPG I'd be pissed if I thought a GM was putting his finger on the scales because of some metaplot nonsense. I know that there's this "story game" vibe in newer games (and newer gamers?) but that's not how I want to play, nor is it how the people I play with want it (which is why I roll in the open in front of the GM's screen, just so there's no question).

From my perspective the "story" should be reflecting with your fellow players, as you all look back over the events of a campaign (no matter how short-lived). When the "story" is predetermined by the GM, then players are cheated of their accomplishments; reduced to passive participants in somebody's fan-fic and in that event I'd read rather read a good book.

nDervish · 9/16/2014 4:45 am

Awesome TPK! I especially love how they almost made it out... and then the monk went down... and then the monk got back up and killed the only other almost-survivor.

Handy Haversack · 9/16/2014 7:36 am

nDervish wrote:
Awesome TPK! I especially love how they almost made it out... and then the monk went down... and then the monk got back up and killed the only other almost-survivor.

Yeah--I felt like the players deserved a narrative observation of that one since there were no conscious characters to see it. The sad thing is that technically, the next batch of characters still have no idea how Hyperborean zombies work!

Sir Clarence · 9/17/2014 8:19 am

Since TPKs are part of the game, I don't mind it that much when they happen, except under these circumstances: 1. I spent a lot of prep time for the campaign and it ends before it really started. Annoying. 2. The players didn't make any mistakes, did the best they could, and still the odds are against them - either because the encounter was much too difficult for them (my fault!), or because I'm having the killer dice in that session. In both cases, I tend to fudge (sometimes), because I don't want to end things that way. Happens very rarely though.

Anyway, condolences to your brave heroes. And I truly hope that your prep work wasn't in vain. ;)

Ynas Midgard · 9/22/2014 9:26 am

Yesterday we had a near-TPK experience: 3 characters out of 5 died because of a cursed scroll (explosive runes), which was rolled randomly at the spot (because I hadn't decided what specific scrolls the NPC had). I will write about it in a more detailed fashion in session report - but just wanted to confirm that this kind of random deaths are a part of the game (there was nothing the players could've done about it, really). Fortunately, my players handled it pretty well, so the campaign shall continue

Handy Haversack · 9/23/2014 8:03 am

Ynas Midgard wrote:
Yesterday we had a near-TPK experience: 3 characters out of 5 died because of a cursed scroll (explosive runes), which was rolled randomly at the spot (because I hadn't decided what specific scrolls the NPC had). I will write about it in a more detailed fashion in session report - but just wanted to confirm that this kind of random deaths are a part of the game (there was nothing the players could've done about it, really). Fortunately, my players handled it pretty well, so the campaign shall continue

Yeah, sometimes it's just, "Gee, Ricky, sorry your bard blew up," and you just keep moving forward. I've had players make new characters because of a death the previous session only to have to make yet another new one in the middle of the game! Stuff happens. But bones heal, witches dig scars, and Hyperborea has the best doctors a daredevil could ever want!

Ghul · 9/23/2014 4:58 pm

Handy Haversack wrote:
Ynas Midgard wrote:
Yesterday we had a near-TPK experience: 3 characters out of 5 died because of a cursed scroll (explosive runes), which was rolled randomly at the spot (because I hadn't decided what specific scrolls the NPC had). I will write about it in a more detailed fashion in session report - but just wanted to confirm that this kind of random deaths are a part of the game (there was nothing the players could've done about it, really). Fortunately, my players handled it pretty well, so the campaign shall continue
Yeah, sometimes it's just, "Gee, Ricky, sorry your bard blew up," and you just keep moving forward. I've had players make new characters because of a death the previous session only to have to make yet another new one in the middle of the game! Stuff happens. But bones heal, witches dig scars, and Hyperborea has the best doctors a daredevil could ever want!

Yes, I distinctly remember my buddy Don going through three PCs in one night. "Gee, Ricky, sorry your bard blew up." That's rich, Handy! LOL

mabon5127 · 9/24/2014 6:08 am

Giant ticks nearly TPK'd my group in their first or second encounter. Nasty critters. The characters were being bitten, drained, and pushed under the murky water of a swamp, at the same time.

WebwayDrifter · 3/15/2015 10:51 pm

Blackadder23 wrote:
Succeeding in an RPG is cheap if the referee gives the PCs plot armor. It only means something if anyone can die at any time. Then you'll know you've actually triumphed, instead of having it handed to you.

So true. Great words to see. This has been my experience playing as well. You keep more players excited about the game, ironically, by playing by the rules, and having them die trying. Makes them want to figure out more ways to stump or overcome the challenges brought by the DM. We once had a group where a player's character died 3 times in a single night, and had to keep rolling up new characters during the game. Pretty unlucky at times, and could have been pretty upset, but just dug down, and kept on rolling...he certainly had a blast that night, in one of his more memorable sessions. The DM also had a pretty challenging time weaving the new ones back into the game. Kudos to him that night as well.

Rastus_Burne · 3/16/2015 12:18 am

We had a game of OD&D last night, and I would have been surprised if at least one character didn't die a grizzly death. I wasn't mistaken. Death by Carrion crawler.

Handy Haversack · 3/16/2015 7:18 am

We flirted with another TPK all day yesterday. Well, the party waltzed through the first few encounters and was feeling pretty tough. But then they got stalked, cut off, and ambushed. The cataphract and berserker were down, the ranger ended up charmed first by the bad guy and then by the party's CE magician. The cleric was seriously considering taking a magic boat into the void. In the end, dumping lamp oil on piles of old rages and creating a smoke cloud saved them. The dice started going their way, and they won a long war of missile attrition. It really could have gone either way--which is what I always look for in a session.

Ghul · 3/16/2015 8:58 pm

That sounds like it was a great session, Handy!

Handy Haversack · 3/17/2015 8:19 am

A hit-and-run dungeon crawl against LE extraplanar aliens who had found a portal to Hyperborea and are setting themselves up in a ley-line nexus. Or as my players say, "Kill that one!"