The Latter Half of D&D

Because I couldn't come up with a strong module for the original party and we had a new member join us, I had everyone roll up new characters. I ran them through an old module, I had written around November. Everyone's character died a gruesome death and I get to run them through one of my Total Party Kill afterlife modules.. I don't think I've ever seen such good role-playing from my players.

Party # 2 Roster

Briellen, Level 1 Wizard played by H. Briellen is an easily excited wizard whose hair changes colors when people aren't looking. Her parents were killed by the soldiers of the Empire of the Alabaster Crown. Her first course of action is to talk to things rather than try to slay them. Her eyes boiled inside her skull as she was caught in a great gout of dragonfire.

Eldwin, Level 1 Knight played by F. Eldwin is a knight errant who is discontent with the way the Empire of the Alabaster Crown is run. Eldwin aknowledges his shortcommings in being a knight and "reappropriates" all treasure which has no use for the dead. The golden armor of St. Polyphagos melted into his flesh, as he was caught in a great gout of dragon fire.


Straid, Level 1 Ranger played by W. Dubbed "Loose Cannon" by his fellow party members due to his tendency to shoot enemies in the head and ask questions later, Straid understands that it is better to live and fight another day than die foolishly. Was bitten almost in half by the dragon and swallowed. He then regained conciousness within the dragon's stomach, attempted to draw his sword, and was burnt alive by dragon fire.

Roger, Level 1 Barbarian played by G. After this session Roger's class will be retroactively converted to the Ghoul-Knight racial class. Roger has a habit of trying to make friends by force with everyone he meets. He lost a leg when one of the "friends" he made became a zombie and bit his leg. Roger found a secret chute in the parish building, where an elevator had once been, and jumped down. He broke himself when he landed 110 feet down.


Ugh, Level 1 Barbarian played by M. With a strong Cajun accent and a strong sense of justice, Ugh travels the land hoping to stop criminals. Ugh's father was slain by a knight of the Empire of the Alabaster Crown. Ugh attempted to slay the dragon and dealt 15 damage to it, he then burned alive.



John, Level 1 Monster Hunter played by I. Traveling the wilds near November, John hunts monsters and seeks to help people. Keeping a detailed journal on the monsters he encounters, he hopes to aid the common man. John was carrying Roger when they jumped down the chute.



Muhjat, Level 1 Wizard played by K. An old man with a bad hip, Muhjat is a pacifist and does not enjoy violence. After surviving a great gout of dragon's flame, Muhjat attempted to blind the dragon with a spell of light. After he failed he fled and also jumped down into the chute.

Summary of Play

Starving on the streets of the November, the party is approached by a priest of the Cathedral of the Second Archangel. He tasks them with traveling to the mountainside parish high on Mt. Sloan. He has no communication from there for 3 weeks now and would have the party investigate. He tasks them with three things.

1. Discern why there has been no communication
2. If there is a tragedy, return with survivors
3. If there is a tragedy, return with the Church's relics

Traveling for three days the party finds the towers, ramparts, and bridges of the mountainside parish and travels upwards. Entering through a secret door behind a waterfall, the party chooses the low path and enters the small hamlet below the parish. They find several houses and no signs of life. They split up and promptly begin looting. Roger, Ugh, and John enter a house to the north and loot it for art. Muhjat, Straid, Eldwin, and Briellen enter a house in the south and find it occupied. The people inside announce themselves as "renovators". After a tense stand off, one of them says to the others to kill the four party members and to keep their new found loot to themselves. Hearing this, Straid fires an arrow which flies through the skull of one of these brigands. The other three give themselves up and are robbed by the party members. Free from their wealth and arms they run away.

As they run away, Roger sees one and gives chase. He tackles him down to the cobblestone street and the renovator, who we later learn is named Sergey, splits his head upon a sharp rock. Bleeding heavily from his head Sergey is harrassed by Roger. Sergey then manages to escape from Roger and runs off.

Moving deeper into the hamlet, the party finds themselves splitting off and looting again. Straid attempts to climb up through a window on the second floor. The ledge he was holding instead breaks and he falls down on his back. He hears voices inside and steps back drawing his bow. The three inside begin to step out before seeing his bow and then step back inside. The Party then reunites with Straid and begin to assault the building.

Eldwin slams the door open and falls into the building. Following him, Briellen rushes inside the building and seeing no-one on the first floor rushes upstairs. She cleanly bisects a pot thrown at her by one of the men inside. The other party membesr rush inside while Ugh and Roger wait for a bit. Then they see two men fall out of a window above the door. They clearly assumed that there would be a ledge there for them to grasp, but alas Straid had slain it earlier. They then rush the two men and break them upon the cobblestones of the streets taking them prisoners.

Briellen rushes the pot thrower at the top of the stairs and questions him. The party learns that these men are part of the brigand group called the Wolves and they are looting this hamlet. They learn that there is a camp of these brigands further up in an orchard. Deciding to parley with these men, the party heads towards the orchards. They meet with the rest of the Wolves and decide to release their prisoners. Roger chooses to keep one of the prisoners (Jaguar), lying to the leader of the brigands (Verja), that he wants to help the party. The brigands lower their barricade had made and allow the party to go towards the parish.

The party enters the parish some time later and finds undead inside. Roger loses control of Jaguar, who runs away from Roger, into the parish full of undead. Roger misunderstands this as bravery and cheers Jaguar forward. Jaguar runs into a trio of zombies who rend him limb from limb and lies bleeding out. Eldwin rushes in and slays one of the wights. Briellen rushes in and attempts to slay one of the zombies. Straid attempts to fire an arrow into a zombie and instead misses, hitting Jaguar's head instead, ending his suffering. The party quickly slays the rest of the undead in the parish and sets about "saving" the relics inside. Roger performs funerary rites on Jaguar. The party pilfers the ostuary of 5 saints and finds an old rusted sword on a platform. Roger takes this sword and the party departs.

The party exits the parish and finds themselves in a courtyard. Muhjat, concerned that they couldn't find the golden armor of St. Polyphagos, returns to the parish by himself to investigate. He then goes to steal the two silver coins Roger set upon Jaguar's eyes. Jaguar's character rises as an undead and he attacks Muhjat. The party becomes very concerned and runs in to help. Jaguar seemingly takes revenge on Roger, and bites Roger's femur in half, pulling his left leg off his body. Roger falls bleeding out, leg missing. The party rush Jaguar and slay him, while John binds the wound, saving Roger. The party continues searching for the golden armor of St. Polyphagos elsewhere.

The party walks past the courtyard but doesn't cross the charred and burned bridge in front of them. Instead, they choose to go up a watch tower. As they ascend, they see a massive tail from a window. Curious, the party finds a dragon sleeping on the roof of the bridge gatehouse. The party also sees the golden armor of St. Polyphagos resting on the roof, the dragon resting around its hoard. The party begins to deliberate what to do and decides to jump over to the gatehouse roof and try to steal the armor. During this process, Ugh decides that if he slayed a dragon he would be immortalized forever. Ugh comments to his peers, saying that when else would he have the chance to try and strike a sleeping dragon. Eldwin hops over and grabs the golden armor. Briellen hops over and prepares to speak with the dragon. Muhjat prepares to watch this horror unfold. Everyone else but Ugh finds cover in the tower. Ugh screams and tries to kill the dragon with his ax.

The dragon takes a good deal of damage and then awakens. The entire party then makes their save against the dragon's fearful presence. Ugh and Eldwin try to strike the dragon again but neither is able to penetrate it's scaly hide. The dragon breathes a great gout of flame and half of the party is INCINERATED. Only Muhjat and John make their saves against the dragon's fire breath. Briellen, Eldwin, and Ugh are but ash. Straid and Roger take a great deal of damage and gain fatal wounds, which they are able to survive against on their next turns. Muhjat unleashes his light spell but the dragon is not blinded. The surviving 4 run/hobble away from the dragon as it rams itself into the watch tower. As the surviving four run back to the parish, they hear the screams of the Wolves as Sergey and his friends, in the hamlet below, are slain by the rubble. Straid is bitten and swallowed by the dragon, while Roger, John, and Muhjat make it to the safety of the church. The dragon then crashes into the parish's antechamber and snakes its long neck into the parish. The remaining three topple a statue and find a chute going downwards. Fearful of the dragon's impending fire breath, they jump into the chute and fall 110 feet into the darkness, breaking themselves across it's stone floor.

Like this, but with way more fire

Running a 12 HD dragon against 7 Level 1 characters.

While some of the players complained that the dragon was "unbalanced" or "cruel", I think their reactions to the dragon were some phenomenal roleplaying. While sneaking to the roof of the tower, I told them that if they were loud the dragon might awaken. I derived pure satisfaction from their looks of fear and urgency that their companions also remain quiet. I think they understood that their chances of fighting the dragon hinged on their skill as roleplayers. They understood that in a straight fight they could not take the dragon and had to adapt. They began planning a tactical approach and some even thought to just leave.  I had the three players who died to the first gout of dragon fire play as the enemy dragon. They had a blast crushing towers and slamming through buildings. For the majority of the players, it was also their first time experiencing a dragon in a D&D session.

Compared to last session, this one went fantastic. The only complaints were that the party needed to work together more. I think that the party is becoming more and more aware of the notion of player skill rather than numeric value being the determining factor of how well they do. They roleplayed phenomenally and I'm super-excited to see what they do in the Total Party Kill afterlife module.