Most memorable PC Deaths

[Presto2112]

As a companion to the Lamest Character Deaths, I'll ask this question:

What is the most memorable character death you can think of? Blaze of glory, unique circumstances, whatever made it memorable and talked about for years, share it with us. I'll start.

I had been playing with the same group for about 2 years and I decided to take a break from it. a couple months later I went to the game for a session... not to play, but just to see how the campaign was progressing. It was a fairly high level affair, and the session I attended just happened to be what was supposed to be the culmination of the campaign, in which the PCs had a showdown with an avatar of Set, which the DM asked me to RP.

Things were actually about evenly played. Both factions were managing to hold their own, until I (as the avatar) was able to dominate two of the PCs - which happened to be a paladin and a cleric or the same goddess, as well as sisters - and pitted them against each other. The ended up actually killing each other! With two of the strongest PCs out of the way, the rest of the party fell apart pretty badly, and the result was a TPK if memory serves correctly. But Set (me) derived such enjoyment from the two sisters that he animated their corpses and had them fight to the "death" again!

I still keep in contact with my old DM and he still mentions that game every once in a while. He almost asked me once to play every villain from that point on.

Your turn.

 

[scourger]

Ah, the greater doppleganger

Back in a 2e game, an intermittent player returned with no character. The party had successfully returned to Friendly City after infiltrating an orcish city polymorphed as orcs. They foiled the invasion but left behind a magic-user for dead. So, the orcish king blackmailed a greater doppleganger to get the rest of the party. After eating the dead mage's brain and absorbing all that character's memories, the doppleganger assumed that character's form and persona. Enter the returning player.

Given the choice, he jumped at the chance to play a devious role rather than roll up a new character. I explained the situation to him and gave him the idea that he had been brought back by the orcs, who thought he was a great fallen champion (or something) and to act all indignant at being left behind. He conned them all.

So, being in the safe and saved city, they split up to pursue their own interests. I separated them from the main room so that the plot could unfold. One by one, the other PCs were eliminated under the ruse of needing a cure to a strange orcish disease they picked up in Orcville. Clever intermittent player! He got them one by one after they shed all their equipment. He cured them alright--permanently!

Every player there that night lost their character. Each player got into the doppleganger role after their character was killed and went after the next mark with gusto. I think some of them felt kind of bad about it later, but it was so fun! The doppleganger even succeeded in getting the lone survivor of the raid on Orcville the following session. The poor player thought his henchman was rescuing his dying body from the field of battle when it was really the doppleganger getting his last quarry! The doppleganger got away at last.

The only thing that kept it from being a super-TPK was the fact that one PC didn't participate in the covert mission at all; and so the doppleganger had no reason to go after him. (That player probably would have seen throught the whole thing, though.)

The doppleganger ruse is so good that I've used it again. Sadly, I didn't have the chance to let the new intermittent player eliminate anyone. The current players haven't caught on yet since the doppleganger was eliminated through an act of nature, but I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they re-encounter the character they think is gone!

 

[DarkSoldier]

I got a frat house dropped on me.

This game in our SW campaign took place shortly after the fall of the Emperor. Our group consisted of our leader, Moff Voren, his NPC bodyguard, the Force Adept advisor (I never go the character's name), and myself, JP Polnareff, chief engineer.

We went to Bastion for Voren to stake his claim as a warlord, and we got roped into investigating possible Rebel activity in the Imperial academy there. On arrival at the dean's office, we met Dean Wormer, Lt. Neidermeyer, and a dead pygmy bantha (no clue how it got there). According to the dean, the suspected Rebel activity was in Delta House, a fraternity house under close investigation for multiple breaches of academy protocol.

Voren and his goon go inside and immediately get into a firefight. A thermal detonator gets lobbed from the stairs, misses them, and vapourises a hole in the floor and the front of the building. They fight in the basement, and then up to the second floor, and then they escape.

Meanwhile, me and the Adept get into a firefight with Neidermeyer (a 12th level Soldier/Noble). Neither of us have combat classes, but just when it looks like he's going to blast us to oblivion, two Jedi burst through a second-floor window, followed by an Imperial Inquisitor. The Inquisitor chops one Jedi's hand off, then gets cut in half. The other Jedi throws us into the basement of the building, which is rigged to explode. Neidermeyer climbs out, I climb out, but the Adept can't. Using his last vestige of vitality, he grabs a corpse and flies it out with Move Object, landing at Voren's feet, unconscious.

Neidermeyer gets away in time, but I'm called for a Reflex save.

*rattle*rattle*toss*

1.

*BOOM*

Apparently, I stepped on a discarded beer bottle as I tried to make my escape. The flaming debris comes crashing down, and I'm called for a Fort save.

I'm pretty sure I made it, but that still sent me into the deep negatives. I asked if I could burn all my Force points to survive, and the GM agreed. Imperial doctors and technicians managed to salvage about 30% of my body, replacing everything else with bionics.

Unfortunately, that campaign ended shortly thereafter. I haven't died yet in the new one, but I did lose my arm after disintegrating a god.

 

[The_Gneech]

Back in high school, one of my players' character died being eaten alive by red smurfs.

Hey, it was the '80s.

-TG

 

[BlackMoria]

The party of adventurers were travelling with a caravan along a trade route that was occasionally raided by a huge black dragon. The dragon made an appearance (the dragon had acquired a taste for fine spirits and wines) and attacked the caravan. Everyone, except the party, fled screaming.

The dragon started going through the wagons and found several barrels of ale and wine.

The party, thinking the dragon hadn't noticed them (it had but was ignoring them) started to close in on the dragon. The thief (2E game), who was a halfling, stated that he was moving to backstab the dragon. The other characters were reluctant and started whispering whether they should attack, negotiate or steal away unseen.

At that moment, the dragon (who had heard all) turned about with a barrel of gin in one huge claw and calmly and confidently ordered the party to lay all their possessions on the ground and leave.

At that point, the halfing was nearly up to dragon, the rest of the party a respectful distance away.

Awaiting the party's response, the dragon broached the barrel with a claw. Then abruptly scooped up the halfing and dropped the halfing like an olive into the barrel and whizzed him around with one clawed finger. Then the dragon knocked back the barrel and chugged the gin and halfing down.

The dragon burped and said "Well?" - punctuating the fact the party still had not surrendered up their possessions.

The coins, gems and magic items couldn't hit the ground fast enough....

The party returned to town with only the clothes on their backs and less one halfing thief.

 

[RangerWickett]

How about a full mounted charge into an immortal villain, driving your lance through her chest and pinning her to the cavern wall, but at the same time dying because you channeled all your life into the killing blow. The force of the blow shatters the walls, and the rest of the party flees as the cave collapses, trapping you and the immortal forever in the depths of the earth.

 

[Kormydigar]

As a companion to the Lamest Character Deaths, I'll ask this question:

What is the most memorable character death you can think of? Blaze of glory, unique circumstances, whatever made it memorable and talked about for years, share it with us. I'll start.

I had been playing with the same group for about 2 years and I decided to take a break from it. a couple months later I went to the game for a session... not to play, but just to see how the campaign was progressing. It was a fairly high level affair, and the session I attended just happened to be what was supposed to be the culmination of the campaign, in which the PCs had a showdown with an avatar of Set, which the DM asked me to RP.

Things were actually about evenly played. Both factions were managing to hold their own, until I (as the avatar) was able to dominate two of the PCs - which happened to be a paladin and a cleric or the same goddess, as well as sisters - and pitted them against each other. The ended up actually killing each other! With two of the strongest PCs out of the way, the rest of the party fell apart pretty badly, and the result was a TPK if memory serves correctly. But Set (me) derived such enjoyment from the two sisters that he animated their corpses and had them fight to the "death" again!

I still keep in contact with my old DM and he still mentions that game every once in a while. He almost asked me once to play every villain from that point on.

Your turn.

The one death that I will never forget took place in a GURPS fantasy campaign about 13 years ago. It was the death of Kormydigar, and the reason he was called the Exploder Wizard. Our GM was running his homebrew fantasy world and we were playing with the first draft of the "unlimited mana" rules for GURPS Magic before they were toned down a bit for publication. Kormydigar was an unstable, power hungry demonologist headed down a spiraling path of darkness. Our party had been captured by the local authorities and Kormydigar was being interrogated. He was already "in the hole" with regard to his expenditure of magical energy. After warning the guard captain and his cronies that he was not to be trifled with, Kormydigar involked an instantaneous demon summoning, requiring almost 300 mana points. One roll on the threshold break table later and the backlash of energy caught up with him. Kormydigar exploded like a magical tactical nuke, taking out the captain, his men, and blowing a hole in the wall large enough to allow his companions to escape. At the same time he made history as the first wizard to actually explode using unlimited mana

 

[bweibeler]

I once had two players decide they were going to sneak into a black dragon's lair. The half-orc ranger decided to lower the gnome ranger on a rope down into the pit, carrying a torch. This attracted the attention of the black dragon who flew up to meet the intruders, breathe acid on the half-orc, killing him and thus dropping the gnome to his death.

 

[Aeric]

A couple of years back, I played in a Birthright campaign. There were only two players in this game. I played a paladin/cavalier (this was 2nd edition) and the other player was an elven bladesinger. My character was a knight from a small realm (the Barony of Roesone, for those of you familiar with the setting), and by the end of the campaign, he had become the ruler of his realm and the leader of a multinational allliance against the BBEG of the campaign (the Gorgon, again for those in the know).

On the eve of the big decisive battle with the Gorgon and his army, my character was praying in a temple to his god (Haelyn). The ghost of the temple's high priest appeared and, after a lengthy discussion with my character about ethics and honor, gave me the Sword of Roele, which was the only holy avenger in the entire world and an artifact in its own right.

The next day, my character rode out onto the field of battle, at the head of this massive army. It was a cloudy day, but the clouds parted and a ray of sunlight spotlit my character on the field, showing Haelyn's favor on him (my character had lost his paladin status for a while and only regained it the night before through the dialogue with the ghost). On the opposite side of the field was the Gorgon, a massive demonic humanoid astride a Huge, Ancient green dragon.

My character charged the Gorgon, engaging him in single combat. He aimed his lance for the dragon. I rolled a crit and wound up doing something like 56 points of damage to it (double damage from the crit, triple that for being a mounted charge with a lance, plus all of my bonuses from being a cavalier, lance specialist, etc.). The DM rolled for the dragon's save according to the "Death From Massive Damage" rules we were using and FAILED. So BLAMMO! I dropped a Huge Ancient green dragon in one hit.

I should also mention that my paladin was only 6th level, and that the only magic he had was the aforementioned holy avenger. No armor, no rings, not even a Cure potion. It was a very low-magic game.

After dropping the dragon, my paladin engaged the Gorgon. I think the DM said I got him down to 1/3 hit points before he finally killed the paladin. The other player lived, but was too busy wreaking havoc amongst the enemy troops to help me.

The campaign ended with the Gorgon's army being driven back to wherever it came from (I forget the name of the area) and my character took his place at Haelyn's table in his feast hall in Heaven.

 

[scourger]

Now, that's a cool story, Aeric!