Greatest Moment While DMing

[moritheil]

These are great. Okay, I'll add one.

I was DMing a low-level campaign and one of the players had to go. Unbeknownst to the others, he told me I could see his character off any way that was fitting. Since his character was a barbarian and one of only two front-liners in an 8-person group, I kept him around for a couple sessions as an NPC. Most of the other players thought he was coming back soon.

The PCs were exploring a cave where an evil cult based itself. They broke through the guards on the top level and wound up fighting zombies on a ledge, high over a precipice. The zombies got lucky and put a few criticals on the group, and one of the other PCs was in trouble. The barbarian charged the zombie - and rolled a 1. After a moment's reflection, I ruled that he kept charging, missing the zombie, and went over the edge, still screaming furious battle cries.

Jaws dropped. Gasps could be heard. People stopped breathing for a moment. "I can't believe you did that," said one of the players. They were still talking about it months later.

 

[The Green Adam]

Its difficult to pick one moment or event since I've been very lucky to have a great many such tales to tell. That having been said, some truly meaning scenes have included...

D&D - My players realizing the goal of their long time, ruthless arch-enemy was to restore to life his people, a subrace of Elves destroyed by their own arrogance and a final, desperate decision made by the other other Elves. His desperation actual brought one player to tears, even though the villain had attempted to kill the PC in an earlier adventure.

Star Trek - A PC Captain in Star Trek making sure his crew was evacuated before self-destructing his ship with himself aboard in order to close a portal being used by evil aliens to take over our universe.

Star Wars - A PC scientist going along with a plan to disable a bomb capable of eliminating an entire star system, only to surprise myself and the other PCs by detonating it to destroy his former partner and the research facility. The entire system was destroyed and many PCs were injured.

Champions - Superhero campaign - PC Hero discovers his sister has been killed by his arch-enemy. Before he can reach the villian and dole out some serious beat down vengence, he discovers another PC Hero has gotten there fist and killed the killer. The other PC was dating the NPC sister and it wasn't known until that moment.

Man there are dozens. Its the reason I game. To see the reactions of my players and to experience the interaction between them and the milieu in unmatched.

AD

 

[megamania]

One of my best sessions came when I had the group in a near impossible predictament with a lone free person trying to free them. They were on board a prison ship with the knowledge they may not reach trial and "disappear" on board. To top things off, there was a very powerful serial killer (an Ogre) also there and a Trust agent. As the final trick- a severe storm that threatened to sink the ship.

We played it well. Players had to think it out then when they did escape they had several things to do first before the ship may or may not sink. We had a blast. I think my Storyhour segments exclain it better-


EBERRON
01/01/05
SEGMENT 032
STORMS OF DECIET

The two guards were very used to this kind of storm. The rise and fall. The rocking. Even the vibration of crashing into waves and walls of the swells. Boddynoc was not.

What set him off was not the weather. It was looking at the bald human next to him whom was green. The barbarian next to him ate something green. From across the cells a smell of something worse was rising. It was a storm. A bad one. Boddynoc had heard of such storms. Even when overhearing a House Lyrandar member was aboard didn’t help his unease however. This Dragonmarked House controlled weather and thus was greatly involving in agriculture and …trade. Especially sea trade. They could influence the very weather. However, there was a limit and Boddynoc was certain this storm exceeded that limit. In a perverse way, he was glad the captain was going to die with him.

His negative introverted thoughts are interrupted by the rage of the barbarian next to him. He is convinced the ship is going down and he wants free. The guards do little as the ship swells. They merely steady themselves and wait it out.

Then Boddynoc picks up on something. It is not the warforged playing mindgames with the monk. Nor is it the frightened barbarian next to him. No –something he can hear. After each thooming thud of the ship falling back into the water something else is striking the ship. Something nearby. Boddynoc, now with something to interest him sits upright and pays attention to everything happening around him. He spots the food brought to them long ago. The creature across from him has a clay plate and carefully has broken it to create a sharp edged stabbing weapon. The far warforged is looking at the bars carefully. He sees they are attached to the wooden hull and floor using large heavy and strong spikes. The guards are also watching a vent more carefully than before. Then looking carefully, it is just a vent- There is a large holding cell there. Something big and possibly dangerous is within an enclosed holding cell.

Suddenly, Boddynoc has new insight –maybe there can be a way out. If these people will not give up yet- why should he. After all- he is a gnome damn it.

The creature across from Boddynoc gives up on the idea of slicing up a guard. The bastards are keeping a good distance from him. He gets up and the chains hang heavily on his arms and upper body. Still, it seems to be thinking of something. Even the warforged that rarely moves turns to him.

“RAAAARRRRGH!” and he rushes the bars. WHAM! And he stumbles back a few steps. The guards glare at him as if that was enough to silence it.

“RRRAAAARGH!” and he rushes the bars again and strikes it even as thunder crashes overhead creating an eerie moment of silence.

The warforged stands up and looks over head. A bolt has been broken! He calls out to the creature- but the storm makes it impossible to hear. He motions for him to do it again.

Boddynoc has no idea what is going on. But still- the warforged is alert and seems to note everything that happens and suddenly has an idea or thought of action. Maybe he knows something that eludes him. Boddynoc watches with intense emotions.

BOOOOOOM! A board cracks within the secret holding cell. Suddenly the guards look panicked. They are ignoring the Creature and warforged now. One staggers back to a pull string and begins to yang on it several times.

BOOOOOM!…..aghhhhh! Yells Cedious as the thunders hurts his head. He has finally made it to the top rail. He begins to climb over when suddenly the ship pitches and he is thrown over …again. This makes the third time. Someone is going to die for this.

The creature’s screams of rage hide the sound of two more bolts that break. The creature, a warforged with adamantine plating and one of the barbarians are now charging and striking the cells in unison. With their combined force they are breaking the bolts that hold the entire iron cage to the ship! The other barbarian has noted a 3-inch gap that was not there before and is trying to force it wider. A guard finally notices there is a method to the madness and goes for a crossbow.

= be prepared to act=

“huh?!?” thinks Boddynoc. That was from within my head.

The warforged that is aiding in the attacks on the cell thinks he saw something in the shadows in the hallway but dismisses it and goes back to pounding the cell.

BOOOOOM another board cracks and a large pale hand reaches out and tries to wrench more boards free. A guard fires at the hand but misses as the ship pitches again. The guard stumbles back to the wall for support and goes to reload. Excitement getting the better of him, Boddynoc reaches out with his magic and castes a fusion onto the armor of the guards.

[I forgot to gag him darn it! And not all spells require use of hands errrrr my bad]

THROOOM! And over he goes again onto the deck. Cedious spots the long haired youngman trying to control the ship and one crewman doing his best to secure lines and equipment. Cedious unties himself and tries to sneak up on the man. There is just no way to do this, thinks Cedious as he half stumbles into the man as the ship pitches forward. He nearly losses his last meal as the ship rises and falls thirty feet! The man is unarmed and easily taken out. Cedious considers killing the pilot whom has seen him but notes two things-

1- The man is too occupied controlling the ship to do anything else
2- Without this man- the ship may go down.

Let him live.at least until after the storm.

He stumbles and slides across the upper deck and nearly becomes airborne as he strikes a ballista. He rolls and fumbles to the rail overlooking the main deck. There he sees 6 men working their way to the stairs leading down.

Cedious smiles. It has to be Boddynoc. He is escaping.


EBERRON
01/01/05
SEGMENT 033
STORMS OF DECIET

Guards from a room in the front of the cells spill out. They have clubs and shields and find a daunting sight. The “special” inmate is breaking free and the rest are very unruly. They are attacking the bars in a mad rush to escape the cells and the storm struck ship.

Suddenly one guard in armor begins to scream and drops his weapon. Steam or smoke is rising from him. The other armored guard also begins to yell. “Fire! Fire!” which further panics the guards just arriving on the scene. The words of fire cause alarm with the one barbarian whom now begins to rush the bars as the ones across from him. The monk for being so sick suddenly lashes out at a guard and slams his head into the bars and with the other hand strikes his chin. A sickening grind and crack can be heard as his neck snaps. Two other guards, startled and leaning with the waves too much go too close to the revealed cell. A large pale hand reaches out and grabs a guard and pulls his screaming body in. It won’t fit through the eight-inch space so the body is repeatedly slammed into the boards. After the third slam after the guard stopped screaming a board breaks and the body retreats into the cell. Another guard suddenly finds himself bleeding from a vital organ. He turns and sees a small figure in fine clothes behind him. He dies.

Chaos.

Another guard gets too close to a warforged cell. The warforged grabs at him and pulls him in. After the third strike the body goes limp. Meanwhile, the two armored guards are now so hot they are cooking. One fell into a table with cards. The flimsy paper ignites and begins to burn. Other guards are burnt trying to save the armored guard before he stops moving.

THHOOOOOM strikes the thunder with lightning flashing. Cedious had dropped unspotted to the Captain’s quarters and stumbles in bouncing off either side of the doorjam as the ship rocks side to side as well as too and fro.

“Dammit Guri- close that door!” yells the captain with his back to the door. Cedious closes the door.

Guri meanwhile has made it to the stairs. The ship mage is hoping to find out why the alarm cord was pulled. He suspects it is Fracture Makker. This serial killer is wanted in Trolanport for killing a House Sivis member. Knowing the dwarves of Kundarak will be overseeing the sentencing of the monster; he wants to be sure it reaches there. The bounty will be much less if it is delivered dead. And when the dwarves of banking is involved, the reward would be great to be certain.

He stumbles down the stairs and can hear the monster bellowing mixed in with screams of pain. Then he notices the other prisoners are attempting a breakout. And it might work! They have uprooted the entire cell structure. Now they are trying to force it away from the wall to push free. Desperate and not wanting to face what is inside, Guri decides to use their other security measure. The guard “animal” they have within their stronghold.

“oooh caaaaptain!” says Cedious once he is close to Captain Attar. He freezes and stops looking at his maps where he was looking for a safe port or island. Before he can act he feels a sharp pain in his thigh. The wild pitching of the ship is not allowing Cedious to strike his chosen lethal spots to puncture. The captain lives but between the wildly foundering ship and the leg injury he still collapses to a knee.

“Who….how….?” he stammers. Cedious cuts him again.

Now on all fours, the captain looks at his assailant. “you…? But you …drowned….”

Cedious finishes him off and wonders where that mage went to. “oh Guri…..where or where are you…?”

CRACK! FFFOOOOOOOMMM!

Lightning strikes the upper mast and shatters the crow’s nest and ignites the upper most sail. Balair fears he has lost the ship.

“An Ogre! Who the hell puts an ogre on a ship!” yells Boddynoc once it registers whom is in the cell.

Then he sees a gnome work his way across fallen bodies of guards. The remaining guards are trying to escape. Unfortunately, to escape means running by the ogre. They all rush at once. The warforged grabs one and holds him. The monk trips one up and tries to pin him but has a hard time since he is in the cell. The Ogre easily grabs one and a splat of blood from inside suggests he has torn him apart. It bellows in rage and fear again and resumes pounding at the boards and reinforced door.

The creature has forced the cell to skid on an angle. The one barbarian spots a space of eight inches and tries to squeeze through. A wild pitch of the ship and a mis-strike by the creature causes the bars to swing in and crushes the barbarian. Fully enraged, the barbarian howls in anger and pain like a bear in a steel trap. The section that once secured the bars top the wall has now embedded itself into his chest and shoulder region. Blood freely runs out of the wound. Once the warforged is done with his guard, he returns to aiding the creature and the other barbarian to attacking the cell. The vibration nearly makes the trapped human pass out but he doesn’t and finally peels free into the empty space. The area here is steamy and hot from a glowing guard. The barbarian has other concerns on his mind than why the guard is hot and glowing. Then rapidly cooling off.

It was a good thing Boddynoc checked to see if guards were after the crossbows. Instead of that, he saw how his heat metal spell was about to ignite the ship on fire. Concentrating through the chaos, he castes a spell to cool the armor off quickly. He notes that a prisoner has fallen out of the cell near by. The ill barbarian and warforged next to him also see this and begin to attack their bars also.

The gnome in fine silken clothes comes up to Boddynoc’s cell and tries to pick the heavy lock.

“Who are you?” he asks the gnome.

“The Trust” is the only answer he gives as if that should explain everything. It must because Boddynoc stops and waits quietly.

Guards stream down one set of stairs and down another set. Chaos begins at one stairway as guards are both trying to escape and enter through the use of it. The other side, they rush just as the cell gives a mighty screeching sound and slides on the blood and gore created by the ogre. The warforged turns and dares the guards to attack.

They do.

Guri unlocks his arcane lock and the mundane special lock then prepares to rush. He opens and pushes the door slightly before rushing a few feet down and up the stairs a group of guards just emptied from. Inside the dark unlit room a quiet cockle sound is heard. Red eyes pierce the darkness and stare at the escape route presented to it.
BOOOOOOOM-OOOOM-OOOOM thunders the lightning and the ship as it rides from the top of one wave onto another. Balair is either a very good sailor or very lucky. The crew on the deck tries to contain the fire and the damage. They don’t see the rogue crouch by the stairs listening to the chaos within. They don’t see him jump back as a person reaches the stairs either.

Guri climbs the stairs and reaches the wind swept deck. The driven rain hurts his eyes then distant lightning lights up the form of Cedious. His strike occurs as the thunder reaches the ship.

BOOOOMMMMMMM.

Guri stumbles a few steps. Just as before, Cedious can’t get a good shot in with the unpredictable motion of the ship. That’s okay. He’ll take him one piece at a time.

“Get back!” yells the Gnome to Boddynoc. Without question he does and there is a soft poof sound at the lock. Nothing happens then steam rises. Liquid runs out and as it touches the wooden floor scores it. Acid.

Boddynoc kicks open the kick for effect. Both gnomes stagger to the closest body of an armored guard. They find the keys and begin with the mage manacles first.

“There is something even more dangerous than that ogre or the storm outside on board this ship. I have to find it.” Says the gnome as he hands the keys to Boddynoc. Again, a statement that seems to answer all questions going through Boddynoc’s fast mind.

The one warforged, the one that waited unmoving and ever alert for an opportunity for escape spots the guard in the furthest back stiffen then ….become stone?

“This is a mad dream on a mad ship” says the large fighter.

He and the barbarian strike down a guard then they see what is causing the new trouble. A large featherless ugly red-eyed turkey …and its attacking people!

Boddynoc frees the other warforged and a barbarian. Finally he reaches the monk (based on effective hand to hand skills) but the monks holds his action. His cell is dangerously close to the ogre’s long reach.

Meanwhile, the other large creature has gotten out of the holding cells and makes way to escape.

BOOOM! KRA-KA-KA- BOOOOOOM! And night becomes day as lightning again strikes the largest mast. It splits and breaks free. Fortunately, even on fire, it falls and frees itself over the edge without causing any loss of life to the crew above. However, now Belair has only two masts remaining and it was the strongest one that was destroyed. He hopes this is the worst of it as the ship crashes and vibrates again as it hits another high wall of water head on. He can not take the time to study the clouds, movement of lightning, the crew or where that murderous halfling went.

“Damn you …halfling…” is Guri’s last words before his limb body falls and then is swept up by a wall of water and taken overboard. The same water nearly takes Cedious except for he stumbles and is washed down into the stairway. At the bottom, he tries to make it look like he meant to do that.

The ugly turkey (Cockatrice for those unsure) tries repeatedly to turn the warforged into stone but fails until he is finally stomped on by the warforged. The barbarian rushes out past him and is driven back by the ogre’s reaching arms. It screams in terror.

[DM NOTE- If anyone understood Giant- he is crying like a girlie-man]
Boddynoc grabs all the cross bows and begins to line them up in a row about fifteen feet from the cell door. He yells to the Trust agent that he will enchant some of these with Bane-Giant. He wants him to then reload bolts as he uses them. A good plan. Except for one thing- the conditions of their environment.

Boddynoc fires off a series of four shots. The wild pitching of the ship, the greased floor and the cover the ogre has makes him a surprising hard target to hit. He finally strikes the outreached hand. As if stung by a bug, the ogre shakes his wounded hand until the bolt flops free and withdraws his hand into the dark cell. Now it screams in rage and begins to attack the walls again.

The monk uses this moment to escape along with two of the barbarians. The third one has trouble breathing with a crushed chest and punctured lung but freedom is at risk. He is crawling for it. He knows he will die but wishes to see the sky when he does,

The warforged that Boddynoc freed hangs back to offer help. The other warforged and the misshapen creature make for the hallway.

Cedious looks into the open door. It is dark. He breaks free the light source in the hallway and shines it into the room.

Crates. Noting it may have valuables to loot later; he goes to find Boddynoc. A statue of a guard blocks his way into the main cell. A bound warforged merely pushes into it and breaks it as it lumbers by. A really large and strange looking humanoid is behind him. Both are chained but uncaring of it.
The Ogre howls as a shot strikes it. The Trust member has a better aim and by using up all of the bolts available, takes down the beast. As he passes it he spits in it’s bloodied hand. “Dead is the feared Fracture Makker- killer of gnomes.” The sound of rendering wood draws his attention away from this moment of revenge.

“Boddynoc!”

“Cedious!”

In the storage room, the two large warriors are upending crates. They are looking for tools, equipment (theirs) and anything of use. They know the gnomes will unlock them shortly.

Books are found along with some fine clothes. The warforged then spots a crate marked: BEWARE FRAGILE DANGEROUS

If a warforged could smile he does and kicks at the crate. His metal soul of his foot catches the side and tears out the boards. A journal spills out along with a lot of padding. Several glass tubes with rubber stoppers also roll free but do not break.

Thinking about breaking them for the sheer destruction of it, he turns to it but then the creature finds his weapons. He leaves the glass for later.

BOOOOOM!

The Trust member is nearly knocked off his feet seeing the warforged standing over the glass tubes. He tries to scream no but the damned thunder is like a thing alive and tries to drown out his voice – and does so.

Boddynoc goes to them to free their chains though he is obviously hesitate to free the mutated monster. It bothers him…this creature of rage and strength.

 

[Ambrus]

I have a few of these:

I keep track of PC piety IMC based on their actions. At one point, in a Forgotten Realms campaign, a PC half-elf druid's piety started to dip below what was necessary to maintain her full druidic spellcasting ability. Consequently I began withholding her highest levels spells when she'd pray for them in the mornings. Then I got this idea; what if another god were to grant her spells in keeping with its doctrine to make up the difference?

Suddenly, day after day, the druid prays for spells and begins getting really nasty necromantic cleric spells in her highest level slots; stuff she didn't ask for – spells that pervert the natural processes of life and death. I figure, being a druid, she'll realize they're nasty and refuse to use them. Eventually her piety will go back up and she'll regain her usual druidic powers. I guessed wrong. The player was intrigued by these new powers and usually avoided using them; except when the s*** hit the fan and they became crucial to save the party's bacon.

Fast forward a bit. The druid's new necromantic powers have continued to increase while supplanting her dwindling druidic powers. She's begun having creepy dreams in which she receives portents from her unknown evil god patron. Following a fight against the BBEG lich (in which a favored NPC died to cast imprisonment on it) the PCs are chasing down the retreating mist of his three vampire lackeys they'd likewise just defeated. Two of the vampires have been longtime thorns in the party's side and they're desperate to follow them and finish them off once and for all. Unbeknown to them however, the vampires have an escape plan; they came with a zombie wyvern with their three coffins strapped to its underbelly and a juju zombie rider/pilot to ferry them back to safety if necessary. Only the druid PC, who is able to wild shape, can take to the air as the wyvern lifts off and begins flying away into the night... over a lake of running water.

The druid PC takes the form of a bat and gives chase as the others remain behind and watch. Everything is riding on her actions now, but she's just come out of a major battle and has few resources or hit points left as she lands on the wyvern's back and resumes her normal shape. That was her last wild-shape for the day and she's stuck there with no way to fly away again. There's little she can do injure the wyvern or juju zombie (who has a crossbow and has begun shooting at her). Then her evil god (me) begins a conversation with the PC by whispering seductively into her mind:

Evil God: "You hate these undead don't you?"
Druid player: "Damnit! Yes!"
Evil God: "You want to destroy them don't you?"
Druid player: *grinds her teeth* "Yeah."
Evil God: "Then call out my name and I'll give you power over them."
Druid player: *grumbles and screws up her face with anger*
Evil God: "It's what you want... and I can give it to you..."
Druid player: *looks ready to spit*
Evil God: "Call my name and you can send this wyvern crashing into the waters below..."
Druid player yells: "I turn you foul undead in the name of Sylvanus and Chauntea!"

But the druid's nature gods don't have any power over the undead and so ignore the PC's desperate supplication. Nothing happens.

Druid player: "Damnit"
Evil God: *chuckles* "They can't help you. But I can..."

The druid player then attempt to do like Ash in Army of Darkness and tries to mumble the evil god's name quietly and incoherently. Nothing happens.

Evil God: *laughs perversely* "Sorry. I couldn't quite make that out. What was that?"

The druid player looks absolutely livid as she screws up her face and yells out: "G** DAMN YOU!!! FINE!!! IN THE NAME OF IYACHTU XVIM I COMMAND YOU TO CRASH INTO THE WATER!!!"

I ended up laughing maniacally as I described the wyvern diving downwards the lake and disintegrating as it collided with the water's surface. The bad guys all died but the PC is knocked out and is barely saved by the PCs who rush into the water after her. But it's too late; she's lost her druidic powers and become a full cleric of the god of Hatred and Strife; whom she hates!

 

[Wormwood]

Best moment: Call of Cthulhu.The Investigators are being stalked by Tcho-Tchos, their homes ransacked and burned, and their associates butchered and eaten. The dread was *palpable* as the players left the room to confer on their next move.

The players then announce that their characters will go to the bank and then the train station. I ask why (as neither location was germane to the investigation), and am informed that they have each withdrawn their savings are are taking the first train out of town to start new lives under assumed names.

To this day, I still get compliments (undeserved, in my opinion, as the players did all the heavy lifting in the emotional buy-in).



Second best moment: Vampire

I'm running Blood Red Moon (a sad little Werewolf dungeon crawl) for a small group, and we decide we'd like to try Sabbat. They quickly (and thankfully) ignore the module's plot and spend the rest of the evening creating a blood-soaked scene-for-scene reenactment of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

I really miss those guys.

 

[shilsen]

Shilsen may I ask what dastardly scenario you had gotten your players embroiled in?

Sure. A lot of the following is Eberron-specific, so I hope that isn't a problem for you. In short:

The PCs had started the first session of the campaign in Sharn with a fight (I like in media res beginnings, preferably with "Roll initiative!") against some NPCs, including a powerful warforged with some unusual attributes, like metal claws and an arm "cannon" which fired a blast of alchemical fire. They killed it and went about their business.

I like running games where I don't plan an overarching plot but it emerges from PC choices, so I threw out a dozen plot hooks after that, and the PCs decided to follow a couple which eventually sent them into the Mournland. Once inside, they fought warforged followers of the Lord of Blades, were captured, and barely escaped. After going back to Sharn, over the course of months of time in-game, they got involved with the warforged in many ways, with one PC in particular being very interested in warforged emancipation and helping those who were still being mistreated.

At one point, warforged in the Cogs (industrial area) under Sharn started being killed. The PCs got involved, with the one PC really upset about the situation and certain this was the work of certain warforged-haters who they'd met earlier. They managed to use their influence to get some of those people arrested, even without real proof, and also got some valuable information about warforged creation into the hands of friendly warforged and out of Sharn.

That having happend, they were outside Sharn and planning another trip to the Mournland when the great moment I described above occurred. Putting together some information they'd just uncovered, they realized that the warforged who were being killed had wounds which would fit the sort of claws the warforged they fought in session 1 had. And then they realized that the Lord of Blades was not just creating warforged but sending some into Sharn and other places, to create panic by killing a few warforged here and there and making them think humans were doing it. And his warforged creation was lacking some components and the information they had sent out of Sharn was just what he needed and probably in his hands by now. And the people they'd had locked up were bigots, but were innocent of the murders.

And a few other things that even I don't remember right now (this was about 3-4 years ago). All in all, it wasn't so much the "oh crap!" elements, though they had a big roll to play too, but just the realization of everything they'd been doing tying together into a horrible whole, even though they'd constantly been doing things of their own free will and not following a plot I'd handed them.

 

[Wormwood]

Its his intelligent far-realm bane weapon who's main goal is to get adventures to settle down and lead normal lives. (+10 to proffession farmer and innkeeper)

I don't quite know why, but I *love* that.

 

[just__al]

The scenario was that the party was helping defend a town that was under constant attack by a cult of necromancers. The town had a church bell, if rang, would increase your effective cleric level by 20 for the purposes of turning and rebuking undead.

The cult needed to carefully remove it from the tower something that they didn't feel they could do with the townfolk there.

Before the party came to help the town had sent away their women and children "somewhere safe" The party was actually very happy to know that in case the final option was to torch the town.

The cult had been sending random waves and skirmishes of undead at the town hoping to drive them all out, but with the arrival of the party, their resolve strenghtened.


Once night when a fair amount of the party was on watch with some town folk, another wave of zombies attacked...


At first the party thought the zombies were goblin or halfling zombies because of their height....


Until they got closer.


It was the Children, who never made it to "somewhere safe"

I described the reaction of the townsmen who were forced to cut down their own children right alongside the party...


Two people got up and had to leave the table briefly to compose themselves.


When the party finally put the cult down, WOW was their celebration...


Most invested I think I've ever gotten my players in a game.

 

[Quartz]

Lovely tales here.

 

[Squire James]

My favorite DM moment came during college, where anywhere from 6 to 10 of us showed up with rotating DMs. I knew about half of them had a badly-timed exam for my game so I had decided to run a "pickup" game for the 4 or 5 I was expecting to show up.

The "plan" was for the players to be hired to guard a 40 year-old elf (which I jokingly portrayed as a little kid) from some unknown guy who was hiring orcs. The first half of the adventure was various pranks perpetrated by the cantrip-wielding kid, and the climax was a rousing brawl against 10 orcs.

Two people showed up. They decided to play a thief and an illusionist. I was at a "stubborn" phase at the time, so I told them I wasn't going to change the adventure just to accomodate sub-optimal character choices. They were okay with that - one of them commented that it was pretty much a one-night game anyway.

The kid made prank noises in the basement with the 1e equivalent of Ghost Sound, and the players hammed it up, acting like I stuck a wight or vampire in there. The role-playing was surprisingly good, and they were playing it to the hilt.

Then the orcs showed up, and the illusionist decided that he needed to do an illusion of a dragon. I had a short discussion with the player, and decided that there was SOME chance he's seen a dragon and that he should roll a d20. The better the result, the more realistic the illusion. He rolled a 1.

Enter Puff the Magic Dragon. Several orcs fall down laughing. At that point I decided the players did too good on the comedy to let their impending deaths happen, so the kid came to the rescue with some prank that scared the rest of the orcs away.

They wanted more, so I ran another scenario. They discovered the mastermind behind the orc attacks was the town's mayor, a level 7 fighter. They pooled all their money to buy a single dose of Drow "sleep poison". So here's the thief, using a light crossbow he wasn't even proficient with, firing a single bolt with weak sleep poison (+4 to save) at a guy who can wipe both party members out with a single blow if he gets a turn.

The illusionist burns his one spell with an illusion to distract the guards, and the thief moves in and fires. He needs a natural 19 to hit. He rolls a 20. With the +4 bonus, the mayor saves on a 6 or better. HE rolls a 2. Blokes didn't get saves against coup de grace attacks back then, so it was all over.

Needless to say, they fled town (and ended the campaign) as level 2 characters, 1 XP away from level 3. "Hunting chaotic squirrels" as my expression goes.