Composer99
Hero
So, long story short, the Rise of Tiamat game I've been DMing has finally come to an end, with a surprisingly poignant moment for me. We've been using Roll20 for maps and Discord for chat and die rolling.
Despite my best efforts, the player character party was severely under-leveled by the time we get into the Well of Dragons, so I threw in a guest character - the paladin/warlock formerly played by my late wife (she passed in the summer of 2021), leveled to match the rest of the party - paladin 5/warlock 7. As a lark I also throw in a holy avenger, because had she lived and continued playing, one would have definitely found its way into her hands. (Indeed, one of my few D&D regrets is not getting one into her character's hands sooner while she was around to enjoy it.)
Things are going along, and Tiamat finally arrives on the scene. Everyone gets over to fight her as best they can (struggling with the save DCs on the dragonfear, though). My late wife's character gets in two rounds of attacking Tiamat, all misses, despite her +11 attack bonus.
By the next round, Tiamat has got a bit desperate: she's down to 61 hit points, or 10% of her nominal maximum. So, Tiamat throws out a divine word, killing two party members outright and stunning/blinding/deafening a third for 1 hour (aka the rest of the battle).
My late wife's character whiffs her first attack, then scores a 90-point critical hit on her second to finish Tiamat off. It honestly felt like my late wife had scored the critical hit herself, rather than someone acting on her character's behalf. It was all I could to to get through some denouement, because I'd been critically hit in the feels.
Here's the conquering heroine with her defeated foe:
Anyone else have some surprisingly emotional D&D stories that they'd care to share?
Despite my best efforts, the player character party was severely under-leveled by the time we get into the Well of Dragons, so I threw in a guest character - the paladin/warlock formerly played by my late wife (she passed in the summer of 2021), leveled to match the rest of the party - paladin 5/warlock 7. As a lark I also throw in a holy avenger, because had she lived and continued playing, one would have definitely found its way into her hands. (Indeed, one of my few D&D regrets is not getting one into her character's hands sooner while she was around to enjoy it.)
Things are going along, and Tiamat finally arrives on the scene. Everyone gets over to fight her as best they can (struggling with the save DCs on the dragonfear, though). My late wife's character gets in two rounds of attacking Tiamat, all misses, despite her +11 attack bonus.
By the next round, Tiamat has got a bit desperate: she's down to 61 hit points, or 10% of her nominal maximum. So, Tiamat throws out a divine word, killing two party members outright and stunning/blinding/deafening a third for 1 hour (aka the rest of the battle).
My late wife's character whiffs her first attack, then scores a 90-point critical hit on her second to finish Tiamat off. It honestly felt like my late wife had scored the critical hit herself, rather than someone acting on her character's behalf. It was all I could to to get through some denouement, because I'd been critically hit in the feels.
Here's the conquering heroine with her defeated foe:
Anyone else have some surprisingly emotional D&D stories that they'd care to share?
