Evil DM Moments

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

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.

Wow this scenario was full of awesomesauce! I was actually reading it and thinking to myself that the girl was Solthra when you were describing it, as a player I may have been pretty hesitant to go through with trying to free her. Sounds like a very evil DM trick to pull and it was so cool that your players were all like "OUCH?!" and then the "Oh sh*t moment" on their parts. I bet the looks on the players' faces was priceless.

 

[Piratecat]

Here's another one I liked!

There was an erinyes that the PCs offended while in the outer planes. They left her alive, so she tracked down where they were from. While they still dallied in Sigil, she went to the PCs' home city, charmed and married the rogue's father, and then started tricking the local peasants into selling her their souls. By the time the adventurers returned home, it was a fait accompli.

The rogue was understandably upset. But his new step-mother was so sweet to him... call me Mommy, and all that... even as she turned his room into a nursery for her unborn child and spent all of his inheritance.

When the PCs discovered the truth at a grand ball, she sneered at them. She explained that:
(a) she was too tough to kill all at once,
(b) she could teleport without error,
(c) consorting with fiends was a crime punishable by death and the crown seizing all assets, and
(d) she still had contract to a dozen or so innocent souls.

Thus, if they attacked her, she'd reveal herself in public to be a fiend (dooming the PC's father to death and disinheritance), then teleport away with the souls. Same thing if they even told anyone the truth. If they attacked her and DID somehow kill her, the souls she had claimed would be forever doomed. And while the PCs tried to digest this nasty little catch-22, she waved at them prettily, smiled, and swept away to dance with someone else.

It was a fun conundrum.

 

[jasper]

Another one of mine was a random roll. I rolled a d12 and looked at the chart.
Players hearing me rolled look at each other.
DM. A cold chilly wind blast down the corridor causing the torches to flicker. Bob and Bill goose bumps appear on your neck.
Bob, " I draw my +3 sword"
Bill, I start casting fireball.
All the players threw initiative. And start discusing on if was vampire, ghost or some other undead. It took me 10 minutes to convince them it was just random atmosphere.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Here's another one I liked!

There was an erinyes that the PCs offended while in the outer planes. They left her alive, so she tracked down where they were from. While they still dallied in Sigil, she went to the PCs' home city, charmed and married the rogue's father, and then started tricking the local peasants into selling her their souls. By the time the adventurers returned home, it was a fait accompli.

The rogue was understandably upset. But his new step-mother was so sweet to him... call me Mommy, and all that... even as she turned his room into a nursery for her unborn child and spent all of his inheritance.

When the PCs discovered the truth at a grand ball, she sneered at them. She explained that:
(a) she was too tough to kill all at once,
(b) she could teleport without error,
(c) consorting with fiends was a crime punishable by death and the crown seizing all assets, and
(d) she still had contract to a dozen or so innocent souls.

Thus, if they attacked her, she'd reveal herself in public to be a fiend (dooming the PC's father to death and disinheritance), then teleport away with the souls. Same thing if they even told anyone the truth. If they attacked her and DID somehow kill her, the souls she had claimed would be forever doomed. And while the PCs tried to digest this nasty little catch-22, she waved at them prettily, smiled, and swept away to dance with someone else.

It was a fun conundrum.

Dang P-cat, that is evil. I guess your players should know by now that they shouldn't leave behind powerful enemies?

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

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.

I LOVE IT!!!!!!
The only bad thing about it is having to clean off my laptop after having spit iced tea all over it after reading this... I am sooo going to steal this idea.

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

The worst ever done to me was having the group (me with my standard 1ed inspired Paladin) see a column of smoke off in the distance. We travel to see what is going on and we run into an entire village that has been annihilated and every citizen (as far as we knew) was massacred... including the kids. There were bodies strewn everywhere, and kids eviscerated and burnt and such. The adults were as well; however, the DM jumped into ultra reality and "showed" us the dead kids. It wasn't hard to determine who the killers were, it was a local tribe of orcs, and we- as players and characters- hated them and wanted to do to them what they had done to these people.

The most evil from my brain was a pretty recent session that had the characters second guessing themselves, each other, and everything about dungeon delving and their careers as adventurers:
1) Using "standard" monsters in non-standard ways- Characters were walking down a set of stairs that had a door at the bottom. About halfway down, the stairs turned into a slide and the characters slid on their backs right into a... mimic.
2) A treasure pile that had a sword and a scabbard on separate sides of the pile. The scabbard had about 5 inches worth of rust monster ashes in it (I stole that idea from on here, I believe)
3) A body early in the "dungeon" that had a ring on its finger. The party gave it to the mage... it was a anti-magic ring. It put the wearer and all within 10' in an anti-magic shell, and no magic- including spells- would work.
4) A doorway that, when the party walked through, they were teleported to a room around the corner... it completely screwed up their mapping.\

The whole thing went like that. There was nothing too dangerous or deadly, and they all survived the mission (some better than others)... when they got out... they realized that the entire thing was an illusion.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

GM did this to me. It was game of mage the ascension. We were newly awakened cluelss magelings. We were taken to this kinda creepy special school. There was an alarm and we were lost in labyrith underneath the school. Tunnels after tunnels, until we arrived to this ominous hall with some creepy reddish crystal in middle with vaguely humanoid shape within. There were skeletons at floor with marks of violence. Crystal was circled with pillars with strange runestones/crystals at top. There were strange runes in froor concentrating to crystal in middle.

One of the npc:s was on other side of hall, when suddenly I saw him holding one of those crystal thingies. I was totally on mood of not touching anything.

- Put it back!!! (I cried)
- But I...

Quickly I grabbed guy and took crystal from him and put it back to top of the pillar.

Wrong move.

Turns out he had gotten it from floor next to skeleton. Dead guy who apperantly because of sudden violence had failed to complite the ritual.

But I did accidently complite it.
(I had one of my worst rpg oh experience)

Pilars started glowing, rays of light shot at crystal, we ran. We finally found our way out from labyrith where we had wondered for two days. Or then not. Npc:s claimed there was not labyrinth under a school and npc:s with us seemed to support that. Even I though we had dreamed up the whole thing.

Until those "aliens" came back. And war started. Turns out that ritual was some kinda beacon dating from some ancient conflict. Really bad stuff happened. I felt so guilty for rest of the campaing.

This gm had skill to manipulate character to do these "mistakes". I got many other "oh " moments from him.

Another gm succesfully pulled me similar with Hell in Freeport (got party imprisoned in Hell). Panic moment well played and wrong assumpsion and touching wrong thing.

I have given such to players, but I don't right now recall anything specific. I don't think I have quite gotten such "fish on dry land" gaping, than some dm:s from me and rest of party. Some of them liked to use my characters as hidden villain to create such impression.

Considering how memorable my villain pc:s in larps and rpg:s have been maybe I should have picked acting after all. But nah, I am too shy for such.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Thus, if they attacked her, she'd reveal herself in public to be a fiend (dooming the PC's father to death and disinheritance), then teleport away with the souls. Same thing if they even told anyone the truth. If they attacked her and DID somehow kill her, the souls she had claimed would be forever doomed. And while the PCs tried to digest this nasty little catch-22, she waved at them prettily, smiled, and swept away to dance with someone else.

Beautiful! Did she have another plot in the works or was she entirely there for revenge?

 

[billd91]

Back in college, I was running Oriental Adventures (yes, 1e) including the adventure Blood of the Yakuza. That adventure was designed to foster the development of rivalries as a gang war rages in the streets. My players took it a bit too far and developed real enmities. This led to the death of one of the ninja characters... Sort of. Technically, it led to an open vendetta against him by an NPC. To protect himself, he faked his own death with the help od allied PCs, went into disguise, and rejoined the party to plot his revenge against the two PCs who betrayed him.

I then stymied all of his efforts to exact revenge for the duration of the spring term. The player got more and more frustrated and obsessed with the revenge plot. Finally, I stopped causing the foil of his plans and everything fell into place. Coincidentally, the betraying players had pretty much forgotten about the incident and dropped their guards completely. The party imploded (multiple deaths) but I had a blast.

 

[jasper]

minor evil a couple of times. I had some players who megagame and read the adventures. I would drop or change magic items. However in Ravenloft I had stradh use all the magic items he could on the party.
When called on it, i replied, he a vampire, he old, don't think he would get bored and search his own castle of magic.