As to whether or not an acid pit that inflicts double-digit damage per round is a fair trap for what I think was a first-level character, well, that seems like a legitimate beef.

Bottom line: the PCs had their chances, and Aeofel died a proper avenger’s death. Wil seems genuinely excited about where this goes next, as am I. Hopefully, the story will become even more compelling because Aeofel died. We’ll see.

And p.s. I am fully aware of what ‘s are for. That doesn’t mean I won’t make mistakes. I’m long done with term papers where I might actually pay attention to what I’m typing much less go back and check something I type. It’s always been interesting to me that “s always seem to be the target of punctuation superiority complexes.

Personally, I think Chris was in the right on both counts. While the DM’s story is important, the player’s story is just as if not moreso, and that story is built on the player’s actions and the dice they roll. Every time the DM fudges a difficulty or gives a pity reroll, it steals some of the thrill from the critical hit that takes out the boss or the lucky skill roll that saves the day.. and denies them the shock of seeing a character fall into darkness because they tripped on a dangerous ledge without a belay, or get roasted alive because they assumed narrative causality would save them from the angry dragon. Just look at how this one turned out: If Aeofel had slipped out of the pit by DM fiat, the adventure would have been a rather bland partial victory. The artifact retrieved but no loot, the big bad escaped. Instead it’s, as someone on Wil’s blog noted, Aquisition Inc’s Empire Strikes Back. They’re beaten down and demoralized by the loss of their ally, and now bound and determined to track down his soul and restore him by any means necessary or at least get vengeance on the Ambershards. What was a rather slapstick series with Aeofel as the straight man has developed an epic story.

More than just letting the dice rule, though, I think it was an appropriate fate. True to the Avenger’s nature, Aeofel charged after his prey not once but twice, the first time blindly following a teleporter away from his allies, the second lunging at the dwarf who had just rang the gong, seemingly confident even in his bloodied state and within charge range of the avenger that he now had the upper hand. And though it’s hard to judge without being able to see the map, I suspect that the rest of AQI could have gotten to him in time for a save had they been willing to take some lumps from opportunity attacks and falling damage, but greed and self preservation won out in the end. Chris even had the opportunity in the end there to let Jim pull up Aeofel’s half-dissolved skull, but I suspect he felt that doing so once the rest of the gang had accepted the permanence fo Aeofel’s death would have cheapened it. And now he and Wil have another 6 months or so to plan his return, either through a lucky bit of bone left dangling from his iron bands and an expensive resurrection, Aeofel’s return as a revenant, or as another new hire joining them on their continuing quest.

PS: Dude.. apostrophes for contractions and possessives, not plurals. Unless you’re a greengrocer. http://bit.ly/pddBG

Also, Scott Kurtz and Wil are friends. Most of that was all good natured, as you can tell by Wil’s later blog post.

As an aside I strongly believe that it was Wil’s determination to RP a ‘real’ character in spite of the others that brought them to the RP well to drink and they found it good. Go back and listen to all the podcasts over a short time and it comes off to me that Wil’s unabashed, unself concious roleplaying taught the others that hey it was okay to try it. Of course he has the huge benefit IMO of being an actor where RP’ing is a fact of life.

Also, giving the spoiler warning after the actual spoiler (which is in the title) doesn’t help all that much

Storywise, both Binwin and Aeofel were being RP’d well. Binwin was torn between his revenge and his friends. He was trying to do the honourable thing – stay with his friends. However, Binwin split the party by trying to get Aoefel to enact his revenge for him. Lying to his friends originally, and not fully committing to protecting his friends by pulling Aeofel back cost an innocent their life (two assuming the prisoner will not have a nice end). And there was no ‘reward’ in terms of revenge, just a hollow coat (the one that got the others except Aeofel to join in the first place).

That’s a brilliant story and character beat for Binwin.

The fact it was also a loss to an innocent player doing aa darn good RP job as Wil was doing really hits the story point home. Character and player shame making it a great ending, though not a happy one.

Just a thought!

Yes I’m not sure of how serious that whole intra-group play by play was. Given Wil’s what seemed to me to be obvious attachment to the character I do hope Chris has something up his sleeve.

I also really would have liked to have seen the other characters have done something to help resolve the issue. Without actually seeing the map it sounds like Jim Darkmagic could have used a combination of Move, Expeditious Retreat, Action Point Move. But again I don’t know if Chris didn’t have a real idea of how many HP Al had and that a single failed climb check would kill him. I was a little surprised that Al was still only a Level 1 character though though. A level 2 character would have been enough to have given him another round to absorb the acid without dying.

Heh, as far as giving him more time for doing other things, it has been only 2 days in roughly over the first half of this year. Even if you give him a day before and after for travel time that’s only 6 days out of 6 months devoted to playing.

Scott Kurtz *was* a bit of a dick, though.