This week the group came extremely close to a TPK, and this time it wasn't anyone's fault that it happened, other than the DM's. Read on for a tale of one really hard encounter, where I emerged triumphantly as a hero to the group.

Last Man Standing

Last session we fought in a major army vs. army battle and got our asses kicked. Thankfully we managed to escape before anyone (in our group) died, but now we were left in the wilderness and had to keep moving to get away from the approaching hordes. Deciding on a path to the nearest port city, we soon came across a very strange sight - a circle of stones like Stonehenge and a few decrepit buildings nearby. A dwarf woman approached us from the stone circle, mentioning that there wasn't another town for a dozen miles and that we could stay here if we liked. While pretty wary at first, we were really in desperate need of shelter and a hot meal after our escape from the battle. So we decided to stay.

Unfortunately, at this point I had to go AFK for a short while, but when I returned I found that our group's alchemist had gone off with the dwarf woman to investigate some strange plantlife that was growing a short distance away. Meanwhile, the magus and the oracle were exploring the surrounding area, leaving just me to tend the camp back at the stone circle. Everyone returned and appeared to be in good spirits, despite some "falling down a hole" issues. I decided that we should set a watch order, since we are in the wilderness. I took first watch, and the alchemist took the second (being half-elves, we needed very little sleep and could just handle watch duty with just the two of us). My watch was uneventful, and the alchemist's watch began.

Just an hour into his watch, I was rudely awoken by a very cold sensation. It was the alchemist, standing over me and radiating some kind of dark void. It was causing cold damage and sucking the air from my lungs, preventing me from making noise (like waking up the others). Unfortunately, that wasn't all that woke me up. A dozen flaming skeletons were only a few feet away, and had managed to surround me. The dwarf woman was also a short distance away, apparently leading the attack. With my horrible AC, I was brought down to half my HP in the first round. I immediately used the withdraw action to get away, but, thinking quickly, decided to kick over my coffee pot as I ran to rouse the others. It works, and they had a few precious seconds to prepare, not that it did them any good.

I was now a good distance from the enemies, but I certainly wasn't safe. The dwarf woman cast Howling Agony on us, which imposed a number of debuffs on the group, the most devastating of which required sacrificing a move action each turn or else face severe trouble casting. The magus tried to prepare himself with a Shield spell, but was quickly surrounded by the skeletons and was soon silenced as the alchemist stood over him too. Knowing that I had to control the crowd of skeletons, I sacrificed my move action and cast Black Tentacles, which grappled all of the skeletons and managed to get the Dwarf woman too (we discovered she was a witch), though the alchemist avoided them. The dwarf woman desperately tried to get closer to me to get me back for hitting her with the spell, but she was unable to free herself from the tentacles. Instead, she cast her spell at the Magus, and it turned out to be a Suffocate spell. Knowing the fate that awaited him if he stayed, the Magus quickly backed off and made it to the edge of the battlefield before passing out, gone from the fight.

The oracle came next. He managed to hit the Dwarf with a potent spell that took a chunk out of her HP, but he didn't have long to enjoy the victory. She responded with another Suffocate spell and dropped him too, bringing him to a hair from death because the alchemist was still standing over him and draining his life away.

Now it was just me versus the alchemist and the witch. By this time, the tentacles had managed to kill the skeletons. Fortunately, by now, I had the necessary prep time I needed. I cast invisibility on myself to avoid the alchemist and the Dwarf, then followed up by summoning a gryphon, which charged into the Dwarf and took another chunk from her HP. Knowing she was close to death, the witch fled by turning into a swarm of wasps and flying away. Without any area effect damage spells at my disposal, I could do nothing to stop her. Still, she was considered "defeated" for XP purposes, so it was still a victory. So now all that remained was the alchemist versus myself and my summoned gryphon, and I was pissed.

I didn't care that the alchemist was technically part of our crew. He had turned on us, and I was going to beat some answers out of him. He managed to defeat the gryphon, but I am a summoner - I had six more at the ready. He didn't even have a chance as they tore him to shreds. But I didn't kill him. Once he was down, I made sure he was stable, then surveyed the carnage. The oracle was dead. The magus was unconscious. The alchemist was unconscious by my own hand, and I was the last man standing.

I walked over to the magus and used a healing wand to get him back on his feet, then explained what had happened. I then walked over to the alchemist, stripped him naked, and tied him to a tree. The magus and myself would both decide what to do with him. I healed him just enough to get him conscious, and then we began our questioning. Turns out he had been injected with a philter of love while he was out with the witch earlier, so he was happily accepting whatever she suggested. We ultimately believed his story, so because he wasn't acting of his own accord, we didn't kill him. At least, not literally. We couldn't tell exactly what had charmed him or how to get rid of it, and with the witch still alive out there somewhere, we couldn't take the risk that he would turn on us again. We gave him his clothes back, kept the rest of his gear, then left him there to await the return of his "lover." So by my hand, I had effectively killed another player's character, though it was entirely justified and in-character.


Honestly I don't think any of this was any player's fault. This was squarely on the DM. We ended up getting enough XP to qualify the fight as a CR +4 to +5 encounter, the kind of stuff epic boss fights are made of. We were severely outnumbered, down one player due to being absent from the game, down another player because he was turned against us, and then two of our party members were hit with spells that took them out of the fight instantly. We were also caught while sleeping, so most characters were out of their armor, did not have their weapons ready, and did not have any of their defensive spells prepared. It was solely because of my actions that we avoided a TPK and managed to defeat the witch.

To the DM: yes, I get that you want to challenge us, and that's good. But remember that the circumstances of the fight can dramatically alter its difficulty. Had we run the same encounter in a straight up fight, with both sides at the ready, it would have been a fairly even affair. But with the team operating at less than half of its capabilities? We really should have died there. Keep that in mind the next time you decide to hit us with a fight that would easily kill any other party.