Player Punches - what NPC losses have you felt the most?

[NMcCoy]

In the campaign I'm playing in, the party was confronting the BBEGs of the current major plot arc. Said BBEGs had (once again) stolen the world-dividing god-slaying artifact sword from the PC who had inherited it, and were attempting to use it to summon something from/open a portal to the space-outside-of-worlds and let all sorts of eldritch horribleness through. The level 7 party was quite expectedly getting its collective butt kicked by the pair of level 10+ solos. Soon enough, the sword-wielding BBEG made his double attack against my PC - and rolled a 19 and 20 on the dice. I was out of fate points and defensive countermeasures... but my familiar¹ suddenly leapt down and took the hit. Knowing what that would imply, I protested with a great deal of alarm; but in that split second, he wordlessly conveyed to me his reason²... and, though the decision was agonizing, I reluctantly deferred to his judgment, knowing it would be the last time I would do so. The resultant explosion of divine energy flung my character across the room and annihilated the BBEG...
...and my character had suddenly lost his most loyal companion and friend, who had been with him for the whole of the campaign.

What are your stories?

[1]...who happened to be a god, albeit a tiny one.
[2]Protecting not me, but the dormant dragon spirit inside, from being annihilated by the sword.

 

[weem]

Player Punches - what NPC losses have you felt the most?

My players got to know a man named "Goris" who was a nice guy, complemented them, gave them info and supplies, etc. A very charismatic guy they liked a lot...

...he also happened to lead a group of bandits etc. A well organized and disciplined group, but generally doing 'bad' things. The players didn't really ask for details, probably because they just didn't want any of the imagery to tarnish their perception of him. They are not 'good' themselves, but they were sure he was doing things they would not themselves do.

Anyway, it was a really interesting relationship that had lasted many sessions, until a few sessions ago when he was decapitated in front of them at the opening of what turned out to be a very messy combat sequence (it saw the loss of a few other NPC's they were close to as well).

They are still in shock, occasionally bringing him up during each of the last few games.

 

[Plane Sailing]

A sorcerer in my campaign had a raven familiar who was quite a character. Always on the lookout for spare 'tasty treats' (eyeballs from slain monsters) and arguing with the master. One day, at about 9th level the party were caught in a death effect trap, and the raven failed its save... The player portrayed such genuine grief at the loss of his friend that we were all moved by it. A very compelling moment in role playing.

 

[roguerouge]

The death of a goblin named Max. The player in my campaign had captured him when he was a flunky in a smuggling ring, but Max opened his big Paizo goblin eyes and groveled like no goblin had groveled before. The player decided to argue for his life in the courts, which promptly washed their hands of Max and made him (and a half dozen others) the PC's responsibility. That set off a chain of events, as the player tried to tame the goblins by using treats and setting up Max as the alpha male.

Great moments in Max's life:

• The shore days spent as goblin "holy days", mainly spent stealing chickens and running from dogs.
• The day he got hired as a garbage man in Saltmarsh.
• The day the Beta male tried to run a mutiny and he got to see the captain exile him on a sandy island.
• The day he got his "big-big" chair to lord his officer status over the other goblins in the crew.
• The day the goblin crew got their first BIG payday, he wisely stole all their weapons, so that the invitable fights would not be lethal.
• The day he only sort of registered on a detect evil spell
• The day he got a medal for bravery and didn't try to bite the mayor for coming towards him with a small pointy object.
• The day he totally stabbed that guy.
• The day the captain was tired and let him buy a battering ram.
• The day he took the captain to a goblin bar for elephant ears and rum.

Sadly, Max died coming to the captain's rescue when she was fighting a Bone Devil in the rafters of a haunted asylum. It was a tribute to goblin comic relief everywhere that the captain seriously considered spending 5K gp on a raise dead for him.

He died Neutral with Evil Tendencies, but he lives on as an inspiration to goblins everywhere.

 

[GQuail]

My D&D group met, in an early adventure, a Goblin called Pob. He was inserted at the last minute into a Dungeon adventure called "The Witch Of New Pedwich" (from, um, issue 91 or so I believe) becuase they'd wandered off-plot and needed a little nudge in the right direction. He was an adolescent Goblin whose parents had died in the events of the adventure - they instantly took pity on him (my squeaky voice for him helped, I think) and adopted him as a sort of sidekick.

In no time at all he and the Half-Orc Barbarian became a fixture, with Pob sometimes sitting on his shoulders and bellowing out insults at foes who approached them.

Pob stuck with them for about 6 months before, in a dungeon exploration in Faerie, he was petrified by a basilisk. Cue much screaming from them and the basilisk getting hacked to pieces - and one player IRL being kinda pissed with me because he'd only just bought the Half-Orc player a goblin toy as a Christmas present to represent Pob.

Despite being only 5th level or so, they were devestated to lose Pob and were willing to go on a dedicated mission back to Faerie just to find a magical ritual they could use to unpetrify him. On what tunred out to be a session ran on my birthday, the already party atmosphere went crazy when Pob was restored.

Since then, Pob's remained a part of the game - he's currently the level 20 cohort of the Half-Orc and the ex-boyfriend of another PC. The Goblin toy's face is even the logo of our campaign wiki, he so represents the campaign. His one brush with death made it clear just how essential to the game he is.

 

[NMcCoy]

My group's DM plays some amazingly compelling NPCs, and everyone has sunk a fair amount of resources keeping several of them alive beyond what the dice dictated. Most notably, of course, was the concert - nearly all the fate points at the table went into improving the bard's diplomacy roll, leading the crowd in prayer for the soul of his dead boyfriend - and when you have a crowd of 200,000 people swayed by a diplomacy check result of 102, you get results.

There was enough good vibes left over from that concert (after the soul came roaring back from the afterlife, forcibly stealing its body back from the evil mind-mage that was possessing it) to basically overturn all the intrigue and strife in the entire city, as well as create a new god.

 

[Gilladian]

Well, in a campaign a few years back, my PCs (I'm the DM) rescued a pair of boys aged 12 and 15 from slavery. They made the younger boy their lantern-bearer, and the older one a henchman fighter. They were fairly low level at the time, so the kids weren't in too much danger until one day they ran into some ogres or hill giants (I don't remember which) who really whupped on the party. The older kid set his spear and received a charge, nearly killing one monster single-handedly, while the younger one got pounded into the ground and reduced in a single blow to low negatives.

After that fight, the PCs took the kids to town and bought a house so they had a place to leave the younger one. The older one got training as a fighter, and became a useful party NPC. He was infatuated with the party's lovely sorceress, and after the PCs finally retired to their own personal (floating) island, he married her and they now rule their miniature kingdom quite happily.

 

[Shemeska]

When my PCs killed my board namesake (for the second time) because at that point the character never had a chance, there was no fight, there was no value gained, it was just revenge pure and simple and she was being served up on a silver platter.

But oh she deserved it.

 

[TarionzCousin]

There was that really cool thri-kreen NPC in 2E Dark Sun who had a massive volume Portable Hole. He was a scientist and had his entire laboratory in there--with plenty of space left. After a few months, we allowed him to store some of the group's larger magical accessories inside.

Then he snuck away in the middle of the night.