Bah! Foiled again!

CruelSummerLord · May 15, 2008

You're running a situation you're sure will have the PCs at the ends of their collective rope, your BBEG seems to have the battle won, all seems lost for the heroes of the story...

...and then they come up with a strategy that leaves you wanting to bang your head on the gaming table in frustration, because they've just won the day.

Like a good DM, you arbitrate the situation as it should turn out, and the PCs come out the victors. You're torn between anger that they so brilliantly outsmarted you, and respect at their prowess.

Post all the clever, sneaky, or just plain crazy ways your players have come out ahead and saved the day, and the aftereffects of their plans. Heroic sacrifices, clever uses of spells or special abilities, and actions that just plain seem crazy but actually work are all great examples.

Loonook · May 15, 2008

There are always these moments... and they are great. You just have to learn to roll with the punches, take it in stride, and work with it.

Heck... sometimes setting pieces get in the way. The worst one occurred when the players were facing off against a group of vampires in an enormous cathedral. These darkers had been chasing the PCs through a labyrinthine complex under the church, impervious to the holy guardians which surrounded it through a pact with equally powerful unholy forces. They get into the cathedral itself just as the players are dropping into 'dead man's territory'.

We had described this cathedral in great detail... all of the beautiful tapestries, the deific statuary, and the feats of glassblowing that consisted of the great portal glasses and enormous colored dome of glass over the altar and surrounding area.

The vamps cast down on the PC mage and it gets into a real struggle. Counterspell after counterspell, they're blasting away. The two casters are down to dregs and there's no way out of this situation. I'm not wanting a TPK, but the good fight was fought and they were willing to go down with the ship.

The vamps block the doorways along with their thralls, preempting escape. The fighter is fighting off a version of Heartclutch the lead vamp is using as he speaks of the torture, the pain and the fact that the players will never see the light of day again.

Damn slip of the tongue.

Our mage, depleted and up because they were silly enough to take Endurance and Diehard, smirks and starts writing down numbers and looking through his notes.

He laughs, shows the players the notes, and promptly tells me he will shatter that large, imposing piece of whisper thin tinted glass above. He had a single charge on a wand made to attack constructs which ignored hardness and bypassed most spell issues.

Pop, bang, bones and charred flesh. The time underground, sleeping, running, etc. that he had noted +/- 3 hrs. put it somewhere within the hours of 9 AM and 3 PM.

Vampires are not made for High Noon showdowns, and the players rejoice.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

Olaf the Stout · May 15, 2008

Loonook said:
There are always these moments... and they are great. You just have to learn to roll with the punches, take it in stride, and work with it.

Heck... sometimes setting pieces get in the way. The worst one occurred when the players were facing off against a group of vampires in an enormous cathedral. These darkers had been chasing the PCs through a labyrinthine complex under the church, impervious to the holy guardians which surrounded it through a pact with equally powerful unholy forces. They get into the cathedral itself just as the players are dropping into 'dead man's territory'.

We had described this cathedral in great detail... all of the beautiful tapestries, the deific statuary, and the feats of glassblowing that consisted of the great portal glasses and enormous colored dome of glass over the altar and surrounding area.

The vamps cast down on the PC mage and it gets into a real struggle. Counterspell after counterspell, they're blasting away. The two casters are down to dregs and there's no way out of this situation. I'm not wanting a TPK, but the good fight was fought and they were willing to go down with the ship.

The vamps block the doorways along with their thralls, preempting escape. The fighter is fighting off a version of Heartclutch the lead vamp is using as he speaks of the torture, the pain and the fact that the players will never see the light of day again.

Damn slip of the tongue.

Our mage, depleted and up because they were silly enough to take Endurance and Diehard, smirks and starts writing down numbers and looking through his notes.

He laughs, shows the players the notes, and promptly tells me he will shatter that large, imposing piece of whisper thin tinted glass above. He had a single charge on a wand made to attack constructs which ignored hardness and bypassed most spell issues.

Pop, bang, bones and charred flesh. The time underground, sleeping, running, etc. that he had noted +/- 3 hrs. put it somewhere within the hours of 9 AM and 3 PM.

Vampires are not made for High Noon showdowns, and the players rejoice.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

As soon as you mentioned vampires and cathedrals the first thing I thought of was stained glass windows. I thought you were going to say that your plans were ruined with a single crossbow bolt though!

Olaf the Stout

Loonook · May 15, 2008

Olaf the Stout said:
As soon as you mentioned vampires and cathedrals the first thing I thought of was stained glass windows. I thought you were going to say that your plans were ruined with a single crossbow bolt though!

Olaf the Stout

Yes... it was definitely one of those 'duh' moments, and reaching towards a trope... however, it was the way it was set up, and sheer luck of the draw that they made it upside into the desecrated place at all. I also had to give it to the player for his copious note-taking; probably one of the top ten for the scribe type of player I've worked with, and I still use my photocopies of his notes to remember a lot of little throwaway details in some of the larger cities that I frequent in that setting.

To be honest is was a lot better than a TPK; they lost the fighter, put a couple down into negatives from the falling glass, and burned their last charge on the handy Break-a-door (or Bash-a-Golem) device they had had commissioned. Of course, the cleric (of a different faith, no less!) made them repay the costs of repairs and such, taking a good-sized chunk out of the adventure profits.

Sometimes, PCs are their own worst enemies.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

Umbran · May 15, 2008

Loonook said:
Vampires are not made for High Noon showdowns, and the players rejoice.

Downright classic, that one...

So, a short while ago, I was running a Gary Gygax Memorial Dungeon crawl. In the module (a classic tournament module - you might be able to guess which), there was one BBEG... well, not really a guy, as it was a giant crab. It was, however, big, bad, and dangerous.

I describe the thing, and the players get really nervous, thinking they're in for it now, when the guy playing the magic user remembers that we are playing 1e, and flips through his PHB real fast, and then yelps - "Polymorph!"

I rolled a stinkin' 2 on the save. My beautify crab, reduced to a frog....

Slife · May 15, 2008

Umbran said:
Downright classic, that one...

So, a short while ago, I was running a Gary Gygax Memorial Dungeon crawl. In the module (a classic tournament module - you might be able to guess which), there was one BBEG... well, not really a guy, as it was a giant crab. It was, however, big, bad, and dangerous.

I describe the thing, and the players get really nervous, thinking they're in for it now, when the guy playing the magic user remembers that we are playing 1e, and flips through his PHB real fast, and then yelps - "Polymorph!"

I rolled a stinkin' 2 on the save. My beautify crab, reduced to a frog....

At least they didn't flip it over on its back. Then they could have used their attacks to inflict massive damage upon its weak point.

awayfarer · May 16, 2008

Eberron. Xen'drik. I recently spent some time creating a tomb for a long-dead giant hero. A complex where the final burial chamber was accessible only through a tricky tour of the chambers containing the giants favorite servants and wives. The various items and other "stuff" they needed to open the final door would be scattered through several of these chambers. Some of these objects were guarded by undead tomb dwellers. Others hidden behind traps and a couple of rather fiendish puzzles.

The PC's had a chime of opening. *bing!*

They enter the dead hero's chamber and begin rifling through his enormous burial goods for the mcguffin they're looking for. They have the forsesight to cast "Hide From Undead" before entering the chamber. A few unfriendly fellows that might have been disturbed were therefore, not.

The one intelligent undead in the chamber could only fail its will save against the spell on a 1.

Do I even need to tell you what it rolled?

BlueBlackRed · May 16, 2008

Back in 2E my players were so darned clever I just threw things at them with no "special" way out.
They always found a way out.

Bah! Foiled again!

CruelSummerLord

First Post

Loonook

First Post

Olaf the Stout

Hero

Loonook

First Post

Umbran

Mod Squad

Slife

First Post

awayfarer

First Post

BlueBlackRed

Explorer

Similar Threads