You Knew the Job Was Dangerous When You Took It

[the_gneech]

Came this close to my first TPK tonight in Red Hand of Doom. The party went up against a fairly pedestrian encounter against some ettins and goblins, that was easy. Then they fought against an immature purple worm (a home-baked encounter I put in to replace some rather ho-hum wandering monsters in that particular part of the module), and finally a fiendish behir that nearly tore them to shreds.

Against both the purple worm and the behir, jamesbarrett's bard/barbarian/ranger guy (just call him "Mr. Multiclass") got swallowed hole. Against the immature purple worm, that wasn't such a problem, but against the half-fiend behir, it was huge. The behir opened the battle with its breath weapon, hitting everyone hard, then swallowed two party members (jamesbarrett plus an NPC ally) whole in the first round, doing vicious amounts of damage to them automatically each round, then pounding on sirfox's cleric with a "smite good" and once he was down getting ready to do the same to lythandra's sorcerer.

The NPC died; jamesbarrett was taken to -9 hp, and sirfox was taken to something like -4 or -5 IIRC. If it wasn't for hantamouse forsaking his attacks to get a cure moderate wounds into the cleric in time, the bard/barbarian/ranger guy would have been lost and probably the sorcerer would have quickly gone next.

It's not like they weren't hurting the behir — they were — just not as much as she was hurting them, which is of course the key to winning. ;) So … quite the session! I must say, the party did very well to survive that.

For those who are interested, have an immature purple worm!

Purple Worm, Immature (CR 8)

N Huge Magical Beast
Init -2; Speed 20, Burrow 20, Swim 10
Senses Tremorsense 40'; Darkvision 60'; Low-light Vision; Listen +10; Spot -1

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AC 16 (FF 16, Touch 6)
hp 126 (HD 12d10 + 60)
Saves Fort +13, Ref +6, Will +3

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Atk BAB +10/+5; Grapple +27; Face 15' x 15'; Reach 15';
+18 melee (bite 2d6+7) and +12 melee (sting 2d4+3) plus poison
SA: Improved Grab, Swallow Whole, Poison

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Abilities Str 25/+7, Dex 6/-2, Con 21/+5, Int 1/-5, Wis 8/-1, Cha 8/-1
Feats Awesome Blow, Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Bite)
Skills Listen +10, Swim +15

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Improved Grab (ex) To use this ability, an immature purple worm must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can attempt to swallow the foe on the following round.

Poison (ex) Injury, Fortitude DC 21, initial damage 1d4 Str, secondary damage 2d4 Str

Swallow Whole (ex) An immature purple worm can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of smaller size than itself by making a successful grapple check. Once inside the opponent takes 2d6+7 points of crushing damage per round from the worm's gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 18 points of damage to the gizzard (AC 15). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. A huge worm's interior can hold 1 large, 4 medium, 16 small, 64 tiny, or 256 diminutive or smaller opponents.

Or for Star Wars Saga Edition, S&S Saga, or Uncanny Midnight Tales...

Purple Worm, Immature (CL 8)

Huge Magical Beast 12
Sanity Loss 2/2d6
Init -2; Senses Perception +10, Tremorsense, Darkvision, Low-light Vision

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Defenses Ref 16 (flat-footed 16), Fort 23, Will 13
hp 126 (d10 hit die); Threshold 33
Speed 4 squares, burrow 4 squares, swim 2 squares

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Melee bite +18 (2d6+7) and sting +12 (2d4+3) plus poison
Fighting Space 3 squares x 3 squares; Reach 3 squares
Base Atk +10; Grp +27

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Abilities Str 25/+7, Dex 6/-2, Con 21/+5, Int 1/-5, Wis 8/-1, Cha 8/-1
Feats Awesome Blow, Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Bite)
Skills Perception +10, Swim +15

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Improved Grab (ex) To use this ability, an immature purple worm must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can attempt to swallow the foe on the following round.

Poison (ex) Injury, +11 vs. Fort def., -1 to Str checks and Str-based skills, melee attacks and damage; secondary damage -3 to Str checks and Str-based skills, melee attacks and damage; Treat Injury DC 27

Swallow Whole (ex) An immature purple worm can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of smaller size than itself by making a successful grapple check. Once inside the opponent takes 2d6+7 points of crushing damage per round from the worm's gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 18 points of damage to the gizzard (Ref defense 15). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. A huge worm's interior can hold 1 large, 4 medium, 16 small, 64 tiny, or 256 diminutive or smaller opponents.

I did screw up the "swallow whole" mechanics a bit by having the swallow whole take place on the same round as the grapple, but as it is unlikely the characters would have escaped, it didn't make that much of a difference. I also made a mistake in the players' favor by forgetting to apply the behir's acid damage to the swallowed foes while they were being constricted by its gullet, so I imagine the players will forgive me. ;)

In other news...

sirfox, lythandra, and I all went to see The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor today, and we all enjoyed it tremendously. Terrific fantasy/adventure flick. The yetis were awesome, and it had Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, and Michelle Yeoh. What more could one ask? ;D I highly recommend it to pulp fans. :)

-The Gneech

Comments

And in a rebuttal for that movie...

[graveyardgreg.livejournal.com]

You liked the Cliche of the Dragon Emperor? It was the most horrible piece of tripe starring Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. Really, I expected better from that movie. It was a terrible disappointment.

Re: And in a rebuttal for that movie...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

The whole series seems to be "love 'em or hate 'em" movies. I don't get it. *shrugs* I'm in the "love 'em" camp, m'self.

-The Gneech

Re: And in a rebuttal for that movie...

[graveyardgreg.livejournal.com]

I love the first two. The third one was a cliche'd piece of bad acting, bad writing, and bad moviegoing experience.

The yetis were cool, admittedly.