#pc death

So far we have had 3 PC deaths in the Curse of Strahd campaign so I decided to make them each a tombstone to remember them by lmao

This party had a devoted cleric, a bard with Healing Word, and for a long time they had a ranger with limited healing magic, so it was pretty tough to kill them off. The final count:

Gadao, earth genasi monk (guest character): 0 deaths

Blue, aarakocra bard: 0 deaths

Oggie, aasimar cleric: 1 death, self-inflicted

Leap, tiefling ranger: 2 deaths, 1 of which was inflicted by the party (it's complicated) (the player retired the character, and I had the character possessed by an enemy solar and the PCs killed the solar + the former PC)

Nasseff, warforged fighter: 2.5 deaths (the .5 is when he was disintegrated into ash to be transformed into a devil after breaking a contract with an erinyes)

Coreopsis Lance, dragonborn paladin (temp character): 1 death

Gloria Sicklemoon, air genasi monk (guest character): 1 death

Alice, half-orc/wood elf sorcerer: 1 death in her backstory (reincarnated from wood elf into half-orc), 2 deaths inflicted by party members (2nd death led to reincarnation back into wood elf), 3 deaths inflicted by me (one was a death-by-mindflayer that I allowed her to bargain away at the last second based on Campaign Themes but she very much did die she just had divine intervention in exchange for giving up her wild magic abilities to manipulate luck)

Alice, after dying the second time, started calling herself 'Alice Twice-Dead.' Upon dying the third time she went for 'Alice Thrice-Dead,' and after the fourth death she switched to 'Alice Oft-Dead'.

So my half-elf warpriest of Iomedae Draven was mentor of sorts to the party’s paladin Auriel, a shabti seeking his purpose and finding it as a crusader of Iomedae. They were both part of the Raven Corps, the lowest ranking members of the crusaders, basically the reserves, kept for glorified guard duty at best, and looked down on by everyone as the weakest links.

The day of the Armice festival, Draven and Auriel stumbled upon a notorious serial killer called the Butcher of Bellstreet in the storage house of the nearby temple, where they also found a symbol of the demon lord Deskari carved into the floor. The Butcher told them it was there when he got there, and they should be more concerned with the metal box in the room. Then he made a run for it. Draven told Auriel to check the box while he ran after the Butcher. Draven and the Butcher had a rooftop chase, while Auriel uncovered a mummified locust demon in a box with more Deskari symbology on it.

At the same time, an inquisitor of Shelyn, Melody, who had just arrived to town following a songbird across the continent saw Draven giving chase to the Butcher. She ran into Auriel in time for him to try to ask for assistance catching the Butcher, who they all believed was responsible for the Deskari conspiracy they’d just uncovered.

In the roof, Draven had fallen behind due to his heavy armor slowing him from climbing compared to his swifter foe, forcing him to find an alternate path. However the Butcher was slowed when he came to a bridge he needed to lower. At that time Melody got into range to cast forbid action, forbidding the Butcher from moving. Draven was able to catch up to him, and noticed that strangely he’d stuffed his clothes full of oranges to appear more bulky. He didn’t have time to process this however because a moment later he was yeeted off the root, landed near the festivities. Members of the color guard came to check on him, and he informed them that he’d been pursuing the Butcher, and of the Deskari symbol in the storage room.

On the roof Auriel tried to smite evil the Butcher after he insulted Iomedae, but the smite didn’t take, instead redirecting to the nearest valid target—the box the Butcher was holding. Melody tried to talk to the Butcher, who was frustrated and snapped at her that he was the Butcher of Bellstreet and he’d kill her whole family yada yada if she didn’t get out of his way. She realized he was just saying what he expected her to hear and maybe wasn’t really the threat he was trying to seem like. She tried to cut off his escape route so they could talk…but slipped up on her attempt and fell to the ground beside Draven.

The Butcher made a run for it, but the Eagle Watch Brigade cornered them, with Draven tailing behind them. The Butcher doubled back and tried jumping off the bridge and making a break for it, but then someone else used hold person on him. Another high ranking member of the crusades, Lady Salzara, showed up with her own sect of crusaders. She had Draven, Melody, and Auriel come with her along with forcing the Butcher to come along.

She went to give a speech, about how on this auspicious day a ‘lost lamb’ had been returned to them. When suddenly there was a horrible cracking noise. The building that housed the Ward Stone, the artifact that protected the city from the demon incursion, shattered. The barrier was destroyed. Demons began swarming in, slaughtering people. The head Paladin Commander Hol Rune was killed instantly without even being able to put up a fight.

Then the silver dragon Trendelev swooped down. He told us that the four of us had a grave destiny ahead of us, and that despite any misgivings we might have about one another we needed to work together to stop the evil that had befallen this city. He cast a spell, and the four of us, and three others, were cast down into the bowls of the earth, and into darkness, as our final sight was the great dragon, protector of Kenabres, facing the Storm King Khorramzadeh.

We woke later in a dark space with scattered memories that slowly returned. The Butcher removed ‘his’ hood after Draven made a quip about the oranges and revealed he was actually a middle aged woman with one demonic red eye, by the name of Luna. She was accused of being a serial killer in her teenage years for reasons we don’t yet know, and leaned into it, making an infamous name for herself in her Butcher guise. In reality, according to her she’d never killed anyone.

Melody lit a light cantrip, and we found the four of us weren’t alone. We were joined by a merchant noble, a crusader with a crushed and broken leg, and an elven wizard whose eyes had been completed blinded.

Draven healed the crusader, Anevia Tirabade, to the best of his ability, and realized she is the wife of the head of the Eagle Watch, Irabeth Tirabade. Someone he and many members of the Raven Corps look up to as she was originally a member of the Raven Corps who foiled a plot to destroy the Ward Stone many years prior and earned a name and rank for herself in the process.

Afterwards they checked on the elven man, Aravashnial, and had to break the news to him that they were not simply in magical darkness, but that he’d been blinded. Aravashnial was proud and didn’t want to be sidelined by this and was a bit headstrong initially. Draven tried to reason with him, trying to connect with the fact he’d lost one eye himself and had to relearn how to fight without the use of his left eye. He told him while he did believe in time he’d be able to relearn how to do what he could before, it *would* take time, and they were in a dangerous situation where rushing in (literally blindly) would be a poor choice. He and Melody also said he’d still be very helpful for his knowledge of the arcane, as absolutely no one else in this group knew a damn thing about arcane anything. Aravashnial couldn’t be said to be happy about his situation still obviously, but he was a bit less hard headed about trying to force his way into the lead into a dangerous position in his current state.

Last, there was the merchant, Horgus Gwerm. He was…unpleasant. He ended up in an argument with Luna and they went off on their own. They opened the box that Auriel had detected as evil, and removed a book from inside. Horgus tried to burn it, but it wouldn’t take, to which Aravashnial made a snide remark. We took notice that this trio seemed to not get along particularly well.

We moved forward, fighting through a number of nasty vermin, until we found an abandoned temple to Torag. Auriel and Anevia both wanted to stop here, Auriel to pay respects and to cleanse the forgotten temple, and Anevia to rest and mourn the state of the fallen temple.

Horgus didn’t want to stick around. He felt like Anevia and Aravashnial were slowing us down. He told Luna they were leaving—apparently he’d hired Luna as his bodyguard. He told us that he could pay us to come as well. The rest of us said in no uncertain terms that we wouldn’t be abandoning the injured for any amount of gold. Luna then managed to talk to him and convince him that it would be in his own best interest to keep strength in numbers, because even if the injured would slow us down, having four able bodied warriors as opposed to one was better for him. (In reality she was more worried that the injured people would get killed sticking with just the three of us without her, and tbh so were we, she’s definitely the strongest out of the four of us. Draven would admit it without pause at this point.)

We managed to reopen the temple and get inside, only to be accounted by the undead inhabitant: the remains of the priest who died in blaspheme in his final moments.

Our three holy members smote him, used judgements and blessings to empower our weapons…and all three of us missed all of our attacks. And Luna, the atheist who has a chip on her shoulder about religion, destroyed the undead priest in two attacks with no help from any holy magic at all. She was feeling very smug about it.

We decided to take a rest there. Auriel spent eight hours cleansing and reconsecrating the temple. Draven and Melody spent some time talking to Aravashnial and Anevia. Melody got…inquisitive…and got some backstory from Aravashnial about how his relationship had been ruined due to Anevia’s wife’s attempts to get the riftwardens to work with the crusaders. Then she found out about how Anevia and Aravashnial accidentally almost ruined Horgus’ reputation with accusations of being a worshipper of Baphomet, which ended up being proven to be baseless, but which led to someone ransacking Horgus’ place of work and besmirching his name. Draven, Melody, and Luna gently suggested/twisted Anevia’s arm that she and the other two should have a conversation like adults and apologize to each other because it sounds like they’ve all screwed each other over a bit and if they’re going to work together to get out of here they need to start with a clean slate. She wasn’t happy about it and said it sounded more painful than her broken leg but she reluctantly agreed, and in the morning the three of them did talk and seemed to be on more amicable terms going forward.

The next day the party met a group of people living beneath the city whose appearance was warped by demonic influence, known only as mongrel-men. We helped to rescue one of their number, Krel, from a cave in after convincing them we weren’t there to hurt them. They asked us to come with them to meet their chief, and we agreed.

On the way, we went through a cave, where we found what at first appeared to be two dead Iomedae crusaders. However the weapons they held weren’t longswords, and upon examining their bodies they had an unholy symbol of Baphomet on them. False crusaders, masquerading as one of our order. Draven and Auriel were incensed, and upon learning these people were the reason the village of mutants had thought we were enemies, we had all the more reason to want to meet with their chief. Draven and Auriel had decided we were going cultist hunting.

We met with the chief, who was happy to let us pass through his village if we intended to deal with the Baphomet cultists and the traitors of his people who had joined them. He asked only one thing in returned, which was that once we reached the surface, if we could put in a good word for his people. He believed it was time for them to rejoin the fight against the demons, as they were the descendants of the original crusaders, and the fight against the demons was in their blood. Auriel, Draven, and Anevia agreed to put in a good word for them, and Anevia brought up that her wife, the head of the Eagle Watch, is a half-orc, so times and old biases are changing, and hopefully people will be able to see past appearances.

After stocking up on some supplies, the party made for the fortress of the Baphomet cultists. The alarm got raised immediately, and it was a fight the entire way through. There was a nasty ranger who kept popping up and taking pot shots at Draven (because favored enemy) and he’d knock out most of my health in a single shot despite me having a ton of health for level 1. And then I got poisoned by a monitor lizard. And then I jumped down a hole and got shot again right after healing. And Auriel almost got eaten by an amoeba.

Anyways we slowly pushed our way forward, until we found the cultist of Baphomet, her tiefling servant, and that damn ranger. The cultist told us to throw down our weapons and surrender to be sacrificed at a more dignified location. Each of us said ‘fuck you’ in our own way.

Auriel’s way was to smite evil on her, rush in, and get a critical hit on his attack. He almost killed her in a single attack of holy fury.

Then she retaliated. As did her tiefling servant. Auriel went down. Luna and Melody went after the cultist. Draven went after the tiefling. Then the ranger stepped back out. An arrow in Draven’s back, and he went down too, right next to Auriel, right as Auriel failed his final con save and breathed his last breath.

Melody killed the tiefling. Reinforcements arrived, but at the same time Aravashnial and Anevia arrived—too stubborn to allow themselves to be left behind after all. Luna crit and killed the cultist as she tried to escape with a box she pulled out from the corner she’d been trapped in. The box flew open. A shining holy sword flew out, and stabbed into Auriel’s body. In the place between life and death, the spirit of the sword spoke to Auriel’s spirit, barely held together, and gave him a choice. Did he feel he had completed what he had been out on this path to do? Did he find the answers he’d been seeking? If so, the spirit would guide him to the Boneyard, and final rest. If not, he would return, bound more closely than before to Iomedae’s will.

Auriel decided that he had his answer. In his final act he’d done something in Iomedae’s name, and that was enough for him. He was ready to move on. And so he was guided away, and as shabtis do, when he died his soul shattered. A piece remained with the sword, and allowed Radiance to awaken for Draven—a warpriest, not a paladin, but someone trusted by a paladin so strongly in his final moments that it allowed it nonetheless.

Unconscious, Draven began to hear the sword calling to him, and its magic began to slowly heal his wounds.

At the same time Melody and Luna were brawling with the ranger, who was continuing to be a pain in the ass. I hate this guy. So much. He was played really smart. Good on the GM. But also fuck this guy so much lol.

Aravashnial healed Draven with a potion, and back to consciousness he heard Radiance speaking in earnest. He also saw that the holy blade was planted in his friend and mentee’s chest. For the first time the smile Draven always wears fell. He drew Radiance, stepped over to the ranger who had been shooting him full of holes this entire dungeon, and skewed him without a quip or a flourish.

Draven lost it a bit after that. Melody and Luna both blames themselves and he told them no. Then Melody said not to blame himself but he laughed manically and said it *was* his fault because everyone around him always dies, not because he’s a crusader but because he’s him. Then he carried Auriel’s body back to the underground city. Even Horgus mourned when he saw what had happened.

That night Draven tried to go off on his own but Melody wouldn’t let him. Draven told her it was better if people weren’t around him, to which she disagreed. He told her again that everyone around him dies, to which she disagreed. He told her that he’d run into demons two times before the most recent attack. The first time he lost his family. The second time he lost his friends and his eye. And now this time he lost his city, and his friend, and…possibly even Leto, he realizes. He’d been trying not to think about it, but his best friend, his childhood friend, had been in the city when the demons attacked, he might be dead too. He went a little manic again at the idea that even the golden boy, his brother, the one person who always escaped Draven’s bad luck, might be dead. Melody snapped at him a bit, telling him he wasn’t the only one who had lost people, and that if he was going to make it a one upping thing, then what hurt worse, losing it all at once, or seeing everyone you love slowly wither away and being helpless to do anything? Draven couldn’t and wouldn’t answer that, and Melody didn’t want an answer because there was none. They ended up going their separate ways for the night.

The next day Draven told Melody to forget about everything he’d said. She told him he couldn’t, because that would cheapen everything he’d felt. Draven reluctantly compromised and asked that she just not tell anyone about what they’d talked about, to which she agreed, and he in turn said for fairness sake he wouldn’t share what she’d told him in the heat of the moment either.

Jester died? (Like "3-failed-death-saves -and-requiring-a-resurrection-ritual" died?)

What would happen to the Mighty Nein? Would they stay together? Fall apart? Go absolutely batshit crazy? (Even more than they currently are?)

I wonder if it would tear them apart. Jester's not what keeps them together, but she's definitely the heart of the group. They all love her so much. If she permadied, there's no one who could fill that role.

I could guarantee that Beau would absolutely lose it. Total shut down, possible self-destruction [taking a level or two in barbarian?]. Nott would go full murder-goblin-hobo and I think Fjord might join her. Like when Percy died at Ripley's hand. I could totally see a "Jester is killing you right now. Not us." type line getting dropped in there. Caleb's reaction would be a little bit of both I bet. I have no idea how Yasha would react...

But Caduceus? He could hold it together. He could get that resurrection ritual done. Death is his whole thing after all.