Pathfinder - The Sixfold Trial

Yesterday marked another session of the Pathfinder campaign that I am running - The Council of Thieves Adventure Path.

Yesterday, our intrepid group (Azelia played by Sarah, Dorn played by Mark, and Kynan of the Grove played by Andrew) had to perform in an uncensored version of "The Six Trials of Larazod" - a play which none of the main cast (with the exception of the part of Haanderthal - but more on that later) have ever survived performing.

The reason for this, is that the trials in the uncut version are real. Or at least emulate the goings on in the play.

The plot follows Larazod - a tiefling in the service of Asmodeus (an evil deity), undergoing a trial for apparent misdeeds done against Haanderthal - a judge. In reality, Haanderthal is a traitor attempting to cover up his own actions. The trial forces Larazod and his two friends to undergo six trials to prove their honesty and loyalty to Asmodeus.

The first trial involved the trio being whipped by a torturer, as well as Larazod being strapped to a "device" - which in this case was a typical "stretch them til they hurt lots, probably die" rack. After enduring this trial, the torturer actually joins the group - he has a change of heart, knowing that his whips have never failed to extract the truth, and as a result of their unbreakable will, believe that they are telling the truth. haanderthal, being a bastard and all, makes him undergo the trials alongside Larazod.
This fourth character was played by an important NPC by the name of Arael. He is the leader of the city rebels, and came along for this since the play demanded at least four player characters - and having a cleric along to heal the group up between acts would be useful. In fact, they never would have survived without him - despite his ridiculously horrible act rolls during the game!

The second trial would be the trial by pleasure. They had "Flukes of Asmodeus" inserted into them, and had to resist them. These "flukes" were, as per the plot, supposedly capable of delivering orgasmic pleasure beyond that of what a thousand succubi could. In the play, however, they emulated this by using ROT GRUBS (since Asmodean flukes don't actually exist).
Unsurprsingly true to their name, rot grubs cause disease - and dealt two points of Constitution damage per round, and also made it quite difficult to pretend to be in ecstasy while they are busy damaging the players.

For the uninitiated, Constitution determines how much endurance a character has, so a lowered constitution results in the player having less health to work with. Hitting zero hit points causes unconsciousness, and hitting a negative number of hit points equal to their constitution score causes death.

Kynan, playing the main role as Larazod, suffered greatly here.

The third trial is known as the Trial in the Belly of the Beast - where the group is eaten by a beast, and claws themselves out of it. This was emulated by a device which looked like a serpent, that they had to climb into. Then the "beast" was moved into a position where the only escape was climbing up the throat, and they had to get out. The "belly" was full of acid, as well. Also, because this wasn't deadly enough, they had an extra character from here on to deal with (a noncombatant by the name of Ilsandra), and there were spikes n the throat - which both served as handholds, but threatened to cut anyone climbing up.

They survived this without *too* much trouble, though Dorn did take a fair bit of damage.

The fourth trial is where things turn potentially dangerous for the crowd, as well as the actors. The Birthing trial involved the characters eating eggs, which then causes demons born of their own power to escape through their mouths. These demons would then attack them. This resulted in 5 lemures to deal with. While not particularly tough creatures, the act of vomiting the eggs up caused all sorts of trouble for the group, since they were weakened. (To be clear, they did not actually give birth to the creatures - the creatures were summoned into the egg leftovers by a hidden cleric)

Once that was dealt with, the Trial by Combat and Love began. This was essentially a boss fight, with two large troll skeletons for the group to fight (the love came from the group's solidarity, as well as Ilsandra and Larazod forming a relationship).
This is where there were difficulties, since both charge Larazod and attack him until either they die, or he does. And coupled with a fairly hefty constitution penalty from the rot grubs earlier, Kynan simply did not have the health to deal with two of these creatures at once - they hit hard, and they hit often.
He was bitten in half by a troll skeleton.
He may have not been, had Dorn not critically failed in the turn just prior - and had his sword stick in the stage.
After the death, combat continued, and due to two awesome critical crossbow shots by Arael, the skeletons fell without any more deaths. Of course, Arael was not allowed to heal in combat, in order to stay in character as the torturer!

The final trial was "Trial by His Own Dark Hand" - safe for the actors. Asmodeus himself (which was performed by the director of the play!) speaks to the party members (Kynan at this point being replaced by an illusion of himself so that the show can go on), and judges them himself. haanderthal is found out as the traitor, and dragged to hell, as the others are set free.

Luckily, the aftermath of the show left the mayor of the city in such awe that he paid for the resurrection of Kynan - and with some convincing, he also paid for the restoration spell that was required to undo the negative level penalty that the resurrection spell imparts. (This actually wasn't fudged by me - this is actually stated in the book as part of the story flow. It was the Mayor's idea to havethis particular play be performed in the first place, and the point of the play was to get invited to a celebration party of his in order to infiltrate his corrupt government).

So all was well in the end. Even if Kynan was dead for about 45 minutes.