Wednesday, August 13, 2014

RPGaDay, most memorable death – The Last Dragon

Scatha's Death
- The Last Dragon -
Following the #RPGaDay, today I'll talk about most memorable character death.

But I never had a memorable player character death in my games, to be sincere. When a player character died, that was always very anti-climatic. They never died against a boss or important monster - only against weak creatures or random events, failing a poison saving throw and things like that. Because of that, I will talk about one of the most memorable boss character death.

It was in my The One Ring campaign. I've already changed many things from the main lore of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. The War of the Ring was happening 50 years before, without Frodo.  Although The One Ring was already destroyed, Sauron had made copies of it and, now, was ready for a final clash against Middle Earth, dividing its army in 3 fronts: one with the barbarians, another with the Witch King of Angmar and the third with himself.

The player's group was composed by Avina (a Beorn warrior learnt in the ways of witchcraft and almost falen to the shadow); Naroc (a halfling created by dwarves who got hold of one of the Ring's repplicas, used it to, unintentionlay, kill Balin and become one of the 13 dwarves and earn a part of Smaug's hoard); Ainamir (an elf wanderer who learned the elf's fire magic and was able to halt Galadriel from falling into the shadow of The One Ring) and Kzarin (an elf archer who was able, in one session, kill 50 orcs, besides winning against Legolas in an archery contest).

Avina went to fight the Witch King, since she was a woman (so she could hurt him) and witch (making her strong against his sorceries). She went with the three handmaidens of Galadrial (whose names were, for those that can understand, Mai, Azula and Ty Lee). The other players - together with Gandalf - went to fight a hidden danger. From the Blue Mountains, a spectre named The Gibbit King was coming closer, having under its control the last great dragon - Scatha (who, in this world was still alive). If the spectre was able to join with the armies, it would be the end of the Middle-earth.

O grupo encontrou o espectro montado no dragão, avançando rapidamente pelo terreno montanhoso para se encontrar com o senhor do escuro. Gandalf usou seus poderes para impedir que o espector usasse suas magias, enquanto Naroc, Ainamir e Kzarin lutavam com o dragão. Naroc se transformou em urso – um poder que ele adquiriu não intencionalmente após um efeito colateral de uma magia de Radagast – e segurou o dragão, enquanto Ainamir e Kzarin o atacavam. Contudo, logo Naroc tombou, mesmo como urso, não podendo segurar o dragão.

The group found the spectre mounting the dragon, advancind rapidly through the mountain terrain. Gandalf used his powers to hold the spectre's magic while Naroc, Ainamir and Kzarin fought the dragon. Naroc transformed into a bear - a power he acquired innadvertedly through a side effect from Radagast's magic once - and hold the dragon, while Ainamir and Kzarin attacked. However, soon Naroc fell, even as a giant bear he was not able to hold the beast for long.

So came forth Ainamir, but the poor elf was not able to withstand more than two turns, falling too. With that, Naroc embraces the Shadow and stand up - for, in this rpg, I allowed people to give in to the darkness in order to become stronger and regain vitality. Again, the bear tries to hold the dragon, and again he falls. Now, it's time for Ainamir do the same, embracing the shadows but falling soon after. Naroc, once again, give in to curruption and, again, falls.

It's all up to Kzarin now. The dragon attacks, having the elf's life border zero. However, at his last attack, at the last turn, at his last shot at his final hour, Kzarin essentially got an epic success. But that is not enough, for the dragon hide is basically impervious. The dragon rolls its defense and... it is a critical failure.

With that, the last dragon fell. That was one of the most impossible battles I've seen my group play. If they lost, everything and everyone would be dead. While they fought the Dragon, Avina fought and won against the Witch King. Sadly, Ty Lee died in the battle, although everyone wanted Mair to die instead. Beorn, the great bear, was able to hold back Sauron's army (dieing in the process) and now the characters, after resting from their battles, track down the Lord of Shadows. But this a story for another day...

Until then,
Valete!

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