Evil DM Moments

[Richards]

Here's my most recent evil DM stunt:

In a recent adventure (actually, it was an expanded side-encounter on the way to the "real" adventure), I had the PCs encounter a traveling circus on its way from one small town to another. Unfortunately, an evil necromancer had just recently attempted - and failed - a ritual to become a lich, and ended up as an amorphous cloud, capable of shooting out bolts of lightning at will. In addition, he could cause diseased rain which drained the Constitution of those caught in his rainstorm; those slain by the diseased rain were instantly transformed into shambling zombies who reached incredible speeds when they scented prey (and passed on the disease through their bites). He rained all over the circus, and they spread the disease quite rapidly among themselves.

So the PCs are traveling along the road one foggy morning, and out of the mist stumbles these circus workers, with horses (and an elephant, and a hill giant) pulling the wagons and cages of the circus. I described it as if they looked weary, pointing out how they were staggering under their loads. It was only when they got close enough to see them face-to-face that they realized the entire traveling circus was made up of zombies.

They were okay with fighting a group of zombies, even though one of the players gets a little bit freaked at the thought of a zombie horde. They were even okay with the swarms of zombified flies that attacked them; these were various biting insects that had been attracted to the scent of dead flesh and become zombies themselves shortly after their feast.

Then, while they're fighting the various zombies, a little zombie pony races up, snapping at the PCs. It's pulling a tiny little wagon. The sides of the little wagon open up, and out pop two zombie clowns in full costume and makeup, the clownish effect somewhat diminished by their bloody teeth and chunks of missing flesh. The two zombie clowns stagger around, smell fresh meat, and race to attack the PCs. Then two more zombie clowns pop out of the little wagon and follow suit. Then two more, and two more after that. It turns out the little wagon contains an extradimensional space, and is the D&D equivalent of the modern-day "clown car."

The players were all pretty much okay having their PCs attacked by a zombie horde. They were not all entirely okay with having their PCs attacked by zombie clowns. I'm told there were some real-life nightmares as a result of this encounter.

Johnathan

 

[SteelDraco]

Probably the most actively mean thing I've done was in a Ravenloft-esque horror game I ran years ago.

Two of the PCs had become a couple - a nature witch and a half-vampire rogue. In the course of the game, they together adopted a young girl that was orphaned in one of the group's adventures. This little girl was maybe five, and a magical prodigy in the process of learning nature magic from the witch mother. She was intentionally cute as a button, doing all kinds of adorable-kid things, and the group doted on her.

The half-vampire had an enemy in his past, a former lover who was herself a full-blooded vampire. He had been her lieutenant, guarding her during the day and helping keep her minions in line. She was still trying to get the PC back into her fold. Recently the PCs had attacked her after she tried again to recruit the half-vampire PC, trying to get rid of her once and for all. She managed to escape, however. Pressing business took the PCs away from home, and they went off an adventure.

While they were gone, the vampiress found the little kid. She charmed her way into the house and turned the young girl, then left. The young girl came back the next day as a baby vampire, killing her way through the group's household staff with the uncontrollable bloodlust of a newly-made vampire. She then stayed there, unable to understand what was wrong with her.

That was what the group found when they returned - a home devastated by a vampire, with the group's young mascot in the middle of it all, unable to understand what was wrong with her or why she had to feed on her loved ones. And she was still... so... hungry...

The group hated me for a while after that.

 

[meomwt]

Back in the days of 2E, one of my players wrote backstory that made him the heir to a barony in the tharll of Iuz. who was bonded to a powerful sword and could use no other magic weapon. At about eighth level, he decided it was time to reclaim his birthright and go fetch the sword.

After short-circuiting my planned cross-country trip (via a magic mirror and a teleport spell), they arrived at the family keep. Said player was mightily upset when he found the courtyard full of undead, and his father transformed into a Death Knight (wielding the sword). He had to take down his father and throw the corrupted sword into a lava pit.

He was still sore about it months later, even after I'd let him have a new magic sword to bond to...

 

[scourger]

Back in 2e, after the party survived The Silver Key, a some-times player came back to the game. The mage was killed in the orc city, and they unwisely left his body behind. I reasoned that the orc king had his greater doppleganger learn everything by eating the mage's brains. The mage player was not there. So, I offered the some-times player the choice to play a regular character or an evil substitute. With a heart blacker than midnight, he agreed to play the doppleganger-in-mage-form.

I briefly explained the set up that the orc king wanted revenge and was holding the doppleganger's family hostage to motivate it for this task. The player came up with an ingenious way to lure the other player characters one-by-one to a room where they had to loose their armor & equipment to be cured of some orc disease they all had. He defeated and turned each of the other players into the doppleganger. So, the character that had been the last victim became the next incarnation of the doppleganger under that player's control. Gradually, each player played the doppleganger as character after character was eliminated.

The best part was that I just had to sit back and watch once the plot was set in motion. The players did all the work. I thought someone would catch on and defeat the plan. But, it ended in a TPK; except for the one character whose player was not there. It was bitter-sweet at the end of the night, but it is still one of the most memorable.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Quite thoroughly enjoying reading the other RBDM moments. Anyone else have some evil DM moment perpetrated upon them or been the perpetrator of heinous PC-killing plots?

 

[Evilhalfling]

In a convention game, I had a tsunami hit a town the PCs were all trying to inherit. Two PCs thought they had time to rush down and save a magic sword/relative. Nope.

I had an artifact - which boasted of being the "Orb of Deception" helping a high level party. It claimed it could channel messages to/from the gods. Actually it could do funny voices, and cast illusion spells. It was amazing how long they trusted that thing.

 

[jasper]

Suprise adventure. The players regular pcs got 500xp. A bonus xp if they completed their secret mission. And another bonus if the new pc survived.
The adventure which rehashed all the old slasher movies and haunted house movies themes. The pc were pregen. But all the players got to choose was from the stock character type. Aka Quarter back/Prom King, Capt of Cheerleader team/ Prom Queen, Science Nerd, Coach, English teacher, Goth/D&D player. Boy did some complain when they go their secret mission. The half back complete his mission. (kiss the prom queen) before the Nerd, Goth, and science geek toss him overboard to a band Hobgoblin Harley Motorcycle gang.

 

[Halivar]

Player 1: Ok, I search the door for traps. *roll* 26.
Me: You don't think you see any traps.
Player 1: *sigh* I pick the lock. *roll* 30.
Me: The door is unlocked.
Player 1: (resigned) Well, I open the door.
Me: Ok, roll me a Fortitude save.
Player 1: Yeah, I knew it. *roll* Oh, great, a natural 1.
Me: Ouch. *rolls a pile of dice* *counts to 50 or so* Umm... how many hit points you got?
Player 1: *rolls eyes* 20! We should have healed up!
Me: Yikes. This is awkward.
Player 1: *sigh* Gimme the PHB. Might as well start on my new character now.
Me: Ok. So here's what happens. You brashly open the door...
Player 2: Oh no!
Me: ...to a completely empty room. There is nothing here. There is a door on the other side of the room.
Player 1: I hate you.

 

[Piratecat]

Back in 2e, the highly inquisitive gnome wizard found a telepathy-enabled crystal ball in a lich's treasure room. A few nights later he dreamed of a beautiful black-haired woman, crying and trapped in a featureless room. He cleverly used the crystal ball to find her. Ever so relieved, she explained that she had been kidnapped by devil worshippers who were trying to release the Princess of Hell Solthra back into the world. They'd run across Solthra before; her symbol was a skull with a short sword jammed down through it. Bad stuff.

So they went after her. The devil worshippers had her imprisoned in the ruins of an old LG temple, reportedly because the corruption was essential to bringing back the fiend. The PCs had to cut their way through the devil worshippers and absurd amounts of traps. They even got ahold of the ritual book that the cultists were using. The girl begged them not to read the last page, at it could free the fiend. Bloodied but resolute, the PCs managed to complete the incantation to release the innocent girl from her magical prison in the floor and rescue her.

Girl: "Thank you! Oh, thank you so much!"
PC paladin: "How does she look?"
Me: Relieved. Dirty. Scared.
PC paladin: I take some of my holy water and gently wash her wounds. Poor thing.
Me: She says "ouch."
Entire party, simultaneously: "OUCH?"

Then the girl smiled wickedly and gestured. The wizard's +3 shortsword appeared in her hand, and she jammed it down into the top of her head to make a living symbol of Solthra. "Ahh," she said, "that's better."

The group all screamed at once.

Turns out it was a cursed crystal hypnosis ball, one tied to the imprisoned princess of Hell. Her cultists had been trying to free her but they needed a hero of pure heart to break the wards that bound her. And if the PCs had actually read the last page of that ritual book, they would have learned exactly that.

 

[Gronin]

I have been DMing for a very long time and to be honest there have been a lot of "Evil DM" moments. My group always plays good, or at worst neutral with good tendencies, and so for me my favourite thing has to be to trick them into doing something nasty. Nothing seems to make them hate an enemy quite as much as unknowingly helping that enemy.

This particular instance was not the worst thing they were ever tricked into doing but it was by far the most out of character. To further set this up it has to be stated that my players at the time had a special hate on for vampires and there was one player in particular who hated vampires more than the others (in fact I am pretty sure that she hangs garlic around the house in RL). Keep in mind that it was an entirely role played encounter and I did not force them to roll any saves or skill checks, their decisions were their own.

The were travelling as a group through a wooded area when they came across a man frantically digging into the ground with his bare hands. It was quickly determined that he was a vampire and he was trying to get a hole dug to avoid the immenent sunrise. To this day I am not really sure how I was able to convince them (included in the group was a cleric of Lathander), but they eventually helped this suposed "good/repentant" vampire who didn't ask for this lot in life (or unlife as the case may be). He had been exploring looking for an even more secluded place to live out his life far from temptation. The helped him dig a hole large enough to hide in, covered him over and then stood guard over him for the day so that he would be safe. When night fell he rose from the ground, thanked them for their kindness (at that time they would have kicked his ass) and hurried on his way. This vampire went on to become the big evil and they chased him for the next couple of levels and I took every opportunity to make sure they felt guilty for every death at his hands. He frequently left notes and "gifts" for them -- lots of fun was had by ..... well by me for sure ..... and when they eventually destroyed him there was a lot of celebration.

As far evil DM things done to me, again lots, soem within the spirit of the game and some by DMs who seemed to feel that the goal was to win (generally not many of those as when the DM is like that I quickly bail). However, one of the most creative things done to a group I played has to have been a completely unexpected attack from a group of powerful NPCs. We were able to survive but could not figure out why we were attacked. It happened more than once over the length of the campaign and eventually we were able to get an answer from a survivor/prisoner. This goes back to an older edition (not sure which one), we were a higher level group (12th or 13th level) and it turned out that pretty much whenever an adventuring party drank a Potion of Treasure Finding and we were within range we were the target. There was some suspicion that parties were (at least some of the time) being supplied with these potions by a particularly annoying enemy -- this was never confirmed.