"Well...it's a low-threshold evil."
Quote: "
Well...it's a low-threshold evil." (Grimstone)
Story: A long-time player was DM'ing our group several years ago. We were enjoying ourselves and the adventure. Unfortunately, one of the characters had his hand lopped off during combat according to a critical hit chart. [Some of you can already guess where this is going.
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We survived the encounter and patched up the character. The player was sort of bummed, but taking it all in stride. Well, not too long after, as we pressed forward within the depths of some underground realm, we happened upon a not-easy-to-avoid chamber with: a HAND on a pedestal. So, a couple of us steeped in early D&D lore immediately cringed in horror. The other player--barely a year or two into it and without much history--was intrigued by the subtle hints that it might be a magical and fully-functional replacement for his recently removed appendage.
As the DM and player discussed what simple steps were necessary to make use of it--basically, pick it up and hold it to the stump--another veteran gamer and I exchanged extremely worried looks (being good-aligned) and proceeded to in-character determine whether this boon was "too good to be true." Also, as an aside: the other player "always plays a paladin, even when his character is not a paladin." Heh. So he did his at-will Detect Evil and concentrated.
Now, the DM frowned and considered this, then announced informatively: "Well, you do detect some evil...but...it's nothing really. It's just a low threshold evil." We tried to warn the other player that something evil would NOT be welcome in our party. He asked the DM who replied: "Oh, it's such a slight evil that you wouldn't even notice. You'd be fully in control." He said it with a straight face. He kept up with the temptations and persuasion, hinting that the hand would likely have tremendous strength, and so on.
So, the character went to reach for the hand and the other worried player and I desperately sent our characters to hold his back. We said that we did NOT think it was a good idea. We begged him to reconsider, or at least let us leave the area. Our characters restrained him by the arms while trying to express our incredible unease. By now, the player who knew us quite well having been friends for years thought there must be something really wrong for us easy-going role-players and tacticians to be so uncharacteristically worked up.
It could be argued that we were unfairly using meta-game knowledge, but there WAS an ever-true-to-form paladin in the party. He DID sense evil. A desiccated hand awaited perhaps a BIT too conveniently after a very recent and random critical hit. So the player hesitated and reconsidered. He announced he would pass on this opportunity.
The DM was momentarily crestfallen even as we were instantly relieved. Alas, we would not so easily dodge fate that day, because the DM grinned deviously and suddenly announced with barely restrained glee: "Before you can react, the hand LEAPS off of the pedestal, FLIES through the air, and ATTACHES itself to your stump!!!"
We all stood around in shock while this new info sunk in (yes, we had gotten up to pace around and discuss this intense occurrence).
The DM proceeded to tell us: "[character], in your mind you hear whispers, and you cannot fight a dark will that now controls you. It is a powerful EVIL ARTIFACT: THE HAND OF VECNA!"
Aftermath: Suffice it to say it did NOT go very well after that. There was much consternation, contention, and some more lopping off of body parts here and there. But years later any of us can remark about something considered to be "bad" and someone else whether agreeing or not can quip back: "Yeah, but it's a LOW-THRESHOLD EVIL!" Everyone then roars with laughter.
