Great Moments in YOUR game...

[LordHavok]

There's been a few but the funniest happened two weeks ago. The set up was the pc's (whose characters were 3rd level) were trying to rescue a group of elves who had been elfnapped by orcs. The orcs were held up in an old fort that had been long ago abandoned but was still in formidable working order. Anyways, it wasn't long before the PC's were working on a stealthy way to solve the problem. It was getting night. One of the PC's climbed high into a tree to get a better appraisal of the situation. The funny part came when another PC climbed into the tree and asked the other to cover him in a globe of darkness so he could sneak into the back of the fort. The former agreed, both forgetting the effects of a globe of darkness. It was only seconds later that the other played tag with every branch on the way down. Poor guy couldn't roll a Reflex check if his life depended on it. Which at the time it did....

 

[PicklingJeff]

I was Dming a game of Midnight where I threw a single high level Legate against some low level PC's. I intended for him to be set up as the repeating boss guy, so now was the time that he showed up just to screw with the party.

They were adventuring in a dreamscape thing like out of a Xena episode I saw, (yeah im sad, tell me about it) and the party had just tackled the horde of rampaging innocent civillians that just wanted out of their nightmare. Anyway up comes the Legate and he takes into them with a few nasty spells like bestow curse etc. I managed to take down all but two of the party, one a fighter who was doing a damn good job, and a rogue who was being the party ambulance.

I was running out with 'screw you over' spells when i decided to try at casting shield other on the fighter who was beating on him. Obviously he failed the will save after being cursed. The rogue tried for a spellcraft check and rolled reasonabley well but not quite high enough. The rogue player said "Look out, I know this spell wil be a harsh one," and when I told the fighter, "You feel nothing out of the ordinary from the spell," everyone panicked. Thats when the rogue proceeded to sneak attack the Legate and take out his own fighter.

I got the award for creative use of spell from that one.

 

[Capellan]

Most amusing: Scratches the cat. Definitely

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

This occured several months ago, but it may have been the most over the top game session that we have experienced. Literally over the top. You'll get the joke as you read...

The party had been tracking an evil cleric who has been raising zombies in an area around a small village, and we finally made it to his tower deep in the woods. After some scouting about, the bard/sorceror Bix (my character) was sent in to see what things looked like inside the tower. He snuck in, and finding nobody on the first floor, proceded to go up into the tower, finding several empty floors above. On the 4th floor, he entered a room which contained an altar with several large black candles and a large evil looking tome open on top.

As he was creeping closer to see what the book was, a trapdoor in the cealing opened up, and the evil cleric began to decend the ladder. Bix grabbed the book, cast magic missile at the cleric, and headed for the stairs, only to find several zombie headed up the stairs towards him. He turned around, headed back towards the ladder, pushed the evil cleric off and headed up to the roof through the trapdoor. Slamming the trapdoor shut, he went to the side of the roof to see how far down the drop was. Just as he made the decision to try climbing down, the trapdoor was flung open. The cleric was pointing a wand at Bix, and demanded the return of the book. Looking from the cleric to the book, Bix sighed and tossed the book over the edge, only to be zapped by the wand of paralyzation.

At the same time this had been occuring, some of the other party members had entered the tower. Kaylen (one of our fighters), was on the third floor where he had opened a window and let a rope down for the rogue (Sunny) to climb up the outside of the tower, so she could get close to the roof and then spring up from the opposite side to catch the cleric by surprise. Katja, our rogue/cleric began to head towards the roof by way of the trapdoor. Our wizard (Orion) and our other fighter (Abagail) were waiting outside the tower doors along with a dwarf (Thalia) we had encountered on the way to the tower who was on her way to take revenge on the cleric and destry the evil book he possessed.

When the book hit the ground, Orion grabbed it, and seeing that it was magical, he opened it, only to immediatly become possessed by an evil spirit that was housed in the book. He took off running, intent on keeping the book for himself, and safe from the dwarf who has sworn to destroy it.

OK, now it gets difficult to follow, as everything happenes very quickly. Here is where things stand: Katja has opened the trap door and begun to come up onto the roof. The cleric is standing next to the paralyzed Bix, who was balanced on the edge as he had been about to start climbing down before being zapped. Sunny was almost to the top of the rope, and Kaylen was holding it for her so she could begin to climb the rest of the way on the stones of the tower wall. Orion has the book and is running off into the woods. Thalia is chaising Orion intent on destroying the book. Abigail is standing in the doorway, about to head off after Orion and Thalia.

Katja aims her crossbow at the cleric, who pushes the paralysed Bix off the roof. (keep track now, 1 evil book and 1 PC falling off the tower) Katja shoots the cleric and shouts for help. Sunny, about to leave the rope and continue up the side, shouts to Kaylen not to let the rope go. Kaylen thinks she says "Let go" and he lets go of the rope and Sunny plumits towards the ground. (1 evil book and 2 PCs now falling from the tower). Kaylen rushes up the stairs and up the ladder to the roof. He gets there and finds Katja and the cleric fighting. He bullrushes the cleric and knockes him off the roof (1 evil book, 2 PCs, and 1 evil cleric falling from the tower). Kaylen also jumps off the top of the tower as well, since it was quicker to tumble and take the fall than try to get back down the stairs.(1 evil book, 3 PCs, and 1 evil cleric falling from the tower)

Outside, Thalia has caught up with the possessed Orion, and manages to grab the book away from him. Heading back towards the tower, she almost gets there when Orion draws a wand of lightning bolts and frys Thalia, killing the dwarf. Abigail catches up to Orion, and uses her flaming battleaxe to chop the evil book in half, destroying it and releasing Orion from the spirits possession.

In the meantime, there are 3 wounded party members who have hit the ground (1 still paralyzed) and an evil cleric who is pretty much dead from his wounds up top and from hitting the ground. We have a crispy fried dead dwarf ally, and a wizard who is suffering from the after effects of possession and has just killed the dwarf. And an evil necromantic book burning on the ground.

Fun session, huh?

 

[cfbrunner]

Arms and Armor

In a dragonlance campaign, the characters were hit by an illusion that made everyone think they had been infected by rot grubs. While most of them were saving against the illusion, the gully dwarf cleric ended up cutting off her own arm...

(That's not the funny part)

The funny part is that she carried it around for the rest of the campaign and used it as her holy symbol

She was also the one who I managed to drive insane when rocks started talking to her and begging for her to take them along with her (she was wearing an unidentified Ring of Earth Elemental Command)

 

[Vorpatril]

Hello EN World! I love these 'best moment' threads, so I'm de-lurking to share the latest from my group.

During character creation with a semi-new player....

Wizard player (wp) -- I know we are going way up into the mountains, so I'm buying lots of food.
gm -- Trail rations are probably best for that.
wp -- Those are expensive and heavy. I'm looking for something else. Hey, goats are cheap! I'm going to buy one of those. I can drink it's milk.
gm -- Um, ok. You'll need to lead it behind you, and you can slaughter it for meat later. Have you talked to the other players..
wp (shocked) -- I will NOT be killing my goat. Look how cheap chickens are! I could buy a hundred!
gm -- How are you going to get them to travel with you?
wp -- They won't just follow me?
gm -- city boy. Herding chickens wouldn't be that easy on an adventure.
wp -- Maybe I'll just buy one for the eggs. I could carry it in my packback and eat the eggs.
gm -- Have you thought about what an upset chicken is going to do to your magic scrolls?
wp -- Ok, maybe I'll tie the chicken to the goat, and still get some eggs. They can keep each other company.
<all the other players do their best 'chicken tied to goat' impressions>
gm -- I don't think so. You now have an unhappy chicken and an unhappy goat.
other players -- Hey, we are LEAVING the farm, NOT taking it with us.
fighter player -- I am NOT walking around with a bunch of chickens. Are you TRYING to attract more monsters?
wp -- FINE! i'm going to research a cantrip that provides eggs. I'm keeping the goat, though. His name will be Billy.

 

[Rabelais]

gm -- I don't think so. You now have an unhappy chicken and an unhappy goat.

You owe me a new monitor... I spit Diet Coke out of my nose.


Ok, now for my story.

Our group was exploring some ruins. When we discover a wounded Selkie (think "Cute Baby Harp Seal") The GM threw in the Selkie to give my Ranger something to do, whilst the rest of the party was trying to figure out a way to get past the trapped entry hall.

Suddenly, Amity came up with the idea of using the cute furry animal to set off the traps in the room. Using the defenseless fuzzy creature as a "Selkie Shield". All conversation at our table STOPPED.

Amity: "What? We can use the Selkie to set off the traps so none of us gets hurt!"

Us: *crickets*

Amity: "Seriously, why not?"

DM: "Well for one... You're playing a Paladin"

 

[cathyb]

You owe me a new monitor... I spit Diet Coke out of my nose.

Vorpatril's games are usually pretty fun, but this latest adventure has been side-splitting. We have several brand new players, so we’re still running into newbie misunderstandings. A session or two after the chicken-and-goat/character-creation incident (BTW, although everyone tried to do "upset chicken" impressions, I believe mine was best) we ran into the following scene. Imagine one party, trying to break into the necromancer's castle, having located a secret entrance involving a 40’ drop down a dark hole. We’ve decided to go down the hole when the GM, helpfully reminds the fighter of a basic practicality…

GM: What are you going to do with your horse?

Fighter character: Can't the horse just jump down the hole?

<A moment of stunned silence follows>
GM: No. The horse does not want to jump down the DARK HOLE that’s 40 FEET DEEP. City boy.

Fighter: well....we could tie the rope to the horse and lower it down the hole

GM: how are you going to convince the horse to go down the hole? Does anyone have handle animal?

<a few minutes of hurried consultation determined that no one had handle animal>

Fighter: Maybe we could push it down the hole? If it gets hurt, the cleric could heal it at the bottom…

GM: Don’t forget, your horse is the best fighter in the group - it could probably take all of you in a fight.

Wizard (the one with the goat): I could cast grease on the floor and we could push it down the hole!

GM, with a gleam in his eye: Mmmmm. That’s certainly an idea. But if you step on the same square as the horse, you’ll be on the greased square too. To be guaranteed to push the horse down the hole, you’d have to get some momentum by getting a running start and flying-tackle the horse. And whoever did it would have to make a dex check to keep from going down the hole with the horse.

Rogue: Don’t look at me!

<some impressions of flying tackles and startled horses followed. I can’t absolutely rule out that startled goat and chicken impressions didn’t get mixed in there in the confusion.>

Wizard: I’ve got it! OK, I'll cast sleep and we can lower it down while its sleeping. <he casts the spell> SLEEP!

GM: The horse shakes its head a little and keeps chewing cud. It made its save.

Several players, only now realizing that non-enemies got saves: WHAT!!??? Why does it get a save??

GM: Can anyone communicate with the horse and tell it to cooperate with the spell?

<a more desultory consultation determined that no one knew how to communicate with horses>

Wizard: Well…I cast sleep again! SLEEP!!!!!

The horse fell asleep and, the GM taking pity on us, we got the horse safely down the hole. Of course, the horse had to be left behind almost immediately after we made it down the hole, since the tunnels quickly got too small to fit a horse. To find it a good place to stay, we killed a carrion crawler, dragged it out of its cave, and left the horse tied up in its old nest. The GM had a moment of apoplexy when he misheard and thought we wanted to tie the horse TO the carrion crawler and drag it around. Post note: the goat got accidentally left behind somewhere in the necromancer’s forest of ghoul-trees. The GM says it may still be alive, we never know.

 

[shilsen]

I was Dming a game of Midnight where I threw a single high level Legate against some low level PC's. I intended for him to be set up as the repeating boss guy, so now was the time that he showed up just to screw with the party.

They were adventuring in a dreamscape thing like out of a Xena episode I saw, (yeah im sad, tell me about it) and the party had just tackled the horde of rampaging innocent civillians that just wanted out of their nightmare. Anyway up comes the Legate and he takes into them with a few nasty spells like bestow curse etc. I managed to take down all but two of the party, one a fighter who was doing a damn good job, and a rogue who was being the party ambulance.

I was running out with 'screw you over' spells when i decided to try at casting shield other on the fighter who was beating on him. Obviously he failed the will save after being cursed. The rogue tried for a spellcraft check and rolled reasonabley well but not quite high enough. The rogue player said "Look out, I know this spell wil be a harsh one," and when I told the fighter, "You feel nothing out of the ordinary from the spell," everyone panicked. Thats when the rogue proceeded to sneak attack the Legate and take out his own fighter.

I got the award for creative use of spell from that one.

Nitpick - Two reasons why that wouldn't work. (1) Shield other transfers damage from the subject to the caster, not the other way around, and (2) You need a focus item (a platinum ring) on both the caster and the recipient of a shield other spell. It's a very creative idea nevertheless.

 

[cfbrunner]

Ahh...so now we get to talk about silly players? Great!

One of the classics...

A elf wizard/rogue (somewhere around 2/2) fails a move silently check and manages to get caught by some guards. They put him in a pen with a group of captured villagers. The pen is about 50 by 50, open to the sky, and patrolled by four guards with crossbows.

The rogue pulls out a potion of alter self and wants to transform into a gargoyle to fly out of there. Cool idea. Not a problem. Guards probably won't expect it, and I figure he can easily fly away. Drinks the potion, flies up 20 feet and asks.

'Can I cast magic missile and make it look like it shoots out of my mouth?'

Sure..why not...

He roars to get their attention and casts magic missile on one guard for a whopping 4 hps of damage...

Followed by four crossbow bolts straight in the chest.

And it ended with perhaps one of the greatest player quotes of all time...

'I guess the more time I spend writing up my background (it was four pages at the time), the shorter the character lives.'