Post game Notes: An interesting night, and one that I've been waiting for for months. They finally reached the Temple of the Elder Eye.
Those of you familiar with the module might see tht I chose to skip the bit about the drow cleric's tentacle staffs needing to be present to summon the elder god. In the end I felt it was better for the story to give Edran an open opportunity to summon it.
I figured that, 1) Edran might have a moment of sense and choose not to do the very thing that Annabelle had warned him not to do. 2) He might summon the god and get sucked through himself, which would have been rough, but given how many nooses he's slipped it would have been just desserts. Besides, as I may have already said, they are 15th level. The gloves are off. 4) the tentacle attack would miss, which would have been rather anti-climactic, but I figured if the dice rolled that way then so be it. Or, 4) An innocent bystander might get taken.
Obviously, the result was, 4, and the bystander taken was the most innocent of them all.
It just worked out that Edran an Rufus were the only two near enough to the altar to suffer the attack. Jef would have been there, but before the tentacle attack there is a Symbol effect that permeates the temple, hitting everyone (potentially) with a random Symbol curse. Everyone managed to turn their heads at the last second and not be affected except Sai, Selendra, and Jef. Jef was suddenly terrified and fled from the altar, leaving Edran and Rufus.
I stood up, leaned over my DM's screen and pointed to Chris (Edran). You're evens. Rufus is odds. I dropped my d20.
3.
I picked it up and rolled again for the attack. Rufus has no real AC to speak of and was hit easily.
And so Rufus, the dog, is our first real, permanent death. He was an NPC, but I must say, he was a beloved NPC. He followed the party through countless adventures from probably level 5 on. The players were dumbstruck, most of them furious with Edran, some with Annabelle.
As for Edran, I have no idea how he'll deal with this. My guess is that he'll roll merrily along. But there is the outside chance that Chris will allow Edran to be deeply affected by Rufus' loss. Rufus was, after all, very much Edran's most loyal friend.
Also, it will be interesting to see what Edran wishes for. Mad Malexi has ordered him to wish for the tooth and return it to her. He is contractually obligated to do so, and defying that might very well mean his death. But Edran is as slippery as they come and just when I think he's going to zig, he zags.
And I've given Chris a week to think about it.
I'll probably kick myself for that.
Those of you familiar with the module might see tht I chose to skip the bit about the drow cleric's tentacle staffs needing to be present to summon the elder god. In the end I felt it was better for the story to give Edran an open opportunity to summon it.
I figured that, 1) Edran might have a moment of sense and choose not to do the very thing that Annabelle had warned him not to do. 2) He might summon the god and get sucked through himself, which would have been rough, but given how many nooses he's slipped it would have been just desserts. Besides, as I may have already said, they are 15th level. The gloves are off. 4) the tentacle attack would miss, which would have been rather anti-climactic, but I figured if the dice rolled that way then so be it. Or, 4) An innocent bystander might get taken.
Obviously, the result was, 4, and the bystander taken was the most innocent of them all.
It just worked out that Edran an Rufus were the only two near enough to the altar to suffer the attack. Jef would have been there, but before the tentacle attack there is a Symbol effect that permeates the temple, hitting everyone (potentially) with a random Symbol curse. Everyone managed to turn their heads at the last second and not be affected except Sai, Selendra, and Jef. Jef was suddenly terrified and fled from the altar, leaving Edran and Rufus.
I stood up, leaned over my DM's screen and pointed to Chris (Edran). You're evens. Rufus is odds. I dropped my d20.
3.
I picked it up and rolled again for the attack. Rufus has no real AC to speak of and was hit easily.
And so Rufus, the dog, is our first real, permanent death. He was an NPC, but I must say, he was a beloved NPC. He followed the party through countless adventures from probably level 5 on. The players were dumbstruck, most of them furious with Edran, some with Annabelle.
As for Edran, I have no idea how he'll deal with this. My guess is that he'll roll merrily along. But there is the outside chance that Chris will allow Edran to be deeply affected by Rufus' loss. Rufus was, after all, very much Edran's most loyal friend.
Also, it will be interesting to see what Edran wishes for. Mad Malexi has ordered him to wish for the tooth and return it to her. He is contractually obligated to do so, and defying that might very well mean his death. But Edran is as slippery as they come and just when I think he's going to zig, he zags.
And I've given Chris a week to think about it.
I'll probably kick myself for that.