Greatest Act of Heroism?

[barsoomcore]

Heroic moments.

Arrafin the wimpy, no-abilities scholar bluffing out a two-thousand-year-old vampire so it wouldn't eat the entire crew, that was pretty good. See my Story Hour for details on that.

Aubrey flirting with Spider Women so the party could get out of an underground city -- the boy still carries the scars of that one. It's one thing to innocently flirt with young maidens and get information from them... it's another when said maidens are eight-legged, 600 pounds and think of men as basically walking, er, reproductive tools. Scars, man, scars.

I have to admit that Barsoom doesn't provide a lot of moments for heroism. My players tend to desperately survive horrible events rather than heroically save the day. It's just the nature of the place, I guess.

 

[Rel]

Last game session was the most heroic moment ever for my current character, a Halfling Rogue.

During a battle that we were winning, he forewent a sneak attack on an enemy whom he had flanked and instead drew an attack of opportunity from that same opponent so that he could move away and throw a dagger at a low level cultist who was trying to coup-de-grace an NPC cleric we knew. The AoO had very little chance of hitting me and if it had, I was at full hit points. The cultist had a crappy AC and few hit points so I took him down with a single dagger. If I hadn't, he would likely have killed the Cleric, which, while annoying, wouldn't have been the end of the world either.

In short, I was willing to minorly inconvenience myself for the greater good.

What can I say. My current character isn't very heroic.

 

[Malcolm]

Bravest moment from one of my players:


Group is fighting a powerful Ogre Sorceress in the streets of the city. While hasted the Sorceress throws a Delayed Blast Fireball into the streets and through the doorway of an orphanage. The children inside (and care-giver) run around in the building and try to hide. The party Rogue, the only one who could make the save from the DC 25/17d8 (still use un-fixed version) blast takes a full round to run down the street and throw himself on the 'Pebble' which is the DBF. Seeing as he hasn't exploded the next round, said Rogue then kips-up for free (Acrobat), tumbles into the street, and throws himself down again to give everyone around him 100% cover from the spell.
Which then goes off...
Everyone at the table agreed it was the bravest thing they had ever see a player do, and some had near heart-attacks that the party Rogue did it!

 

[Chronosome]

Word up, guys, sweet stuff. If it weren't so late, and my girlfriend weren't fast asleep 5 feet from me (I know you're all picturing the grid ), I'd type up a good one...it involves a shadowdancer and a gigantic caller in darkness...

...maybe later.

 

[Voneth]

Bah! Most of your are cowards! It's easy to be "heroic" when you have massive spells, strength or rage to help!

During a fight, we had a urchin cutpurse try to make off with the pouch that had the secret plans. We manage to catch up with the boy even though he has Exp. Retreat. At that moment an sniper assassin sent a posioned arrow at the child. My measly 2nd level (by only 2 extra XP) Rogue leaped in front of the arrow.

I had to MAKE my Reflex check to catch missle in my chest, no chance to snatch it or bat it away. I succeeded and then slumped onto the cobblestone as the world started to fade away.

As a player I held onto my PC sheet, ready to rip it up since our cleric was out of spells. We mannaged to let me make 2 checks to see if I could be stablized or die. I made both despite the high numbers.

Bah! No ressurects, no divine favors, just healing skills and luck! I had already written my character off, even I was surprised he lived. Thats REAL heroism for ya!!

The common man, no one will write ballads of us, yet our sacrifice does change the world.

Now excuse me while I and drnuncheon's exploding PC go get a drink and celebrate that I am probably now on borrowed time.

 

[Vargo]

I joined into a PBEM a bit back. I was playing a halfling rogue-1 (was going to go even split between rogue and ranger) who had been kidnapped (along with the rest of the party) by slavers from an opposing empire.

We were in shackles, and being guarded by an ogre. When the inevitable escape attempt came along, my character (denied his dex bonus due to shackles, and probably suffering a major penalty) knowing that he could end up Dead, decided anyways to soak the AoO and go for an unarmed attack on the ogre.

Which hit, for max damage. This actually ended up being the largest amount of damage anybody did to the critter during the entire fight, and possibly saved the life of some number of our party. Unfortunately, the game ended right after the fight - the DM had underestimated the amount of time involved in running a PBEM. Bleah.

 

[Delgar]

My Most Heroic moment would probably be the first living greyhawk game I ever played.

Half the party was chasing down some crazed cultists trying to throw a magical wicker statue in the bonfire and the other half including my newly created 1st level cleric, a 2nd level paladin and 2nd level sorceress hang back and get jumped by a werewolf mage. The paladin has the only silver weapon (I loned my one and only silver bolt to the barbarian who was using it to bring down cultists!).

The sorceress is the first to go down, I stablize her, then the paladin falls. The rest of the party managed to stop the cultists, but 2 are unconcious and the barbarian falls to -1 as his rage ends.

There I am staring into the red beady eyes of the werewolf covered in the gore of my companions wounded, and the rest of my party is slowly bleeding to death. I grab the silver axe and hold it clumsily in front of me, I'm shaking in absolute terror. The wolf lunges at me and I bat him away with my shield. I swing awkwardly at the wolf with the axe, a weapon I've never used before praying to Pelor to grant me victory for the sake of my friends and of the people. The wolf laughs at my feeble attempt and rakes me with his claws, but my armor holds. I strike a glancing blow and the wolf momentarily steps back, but strikes out in a rage, I feel a pain in my side where his claws gouge. I feel my strength failing. If I fail, my friends will die, the town will fall into chaos. With all my strength I swing the axe, I feel it bite flesh and hit bone. The wolf stares at me in utter disbelief, that he's been beaten and collapses to the ground ripping the axe out of my hands. I stare for a moment at the body of the wolf-man with the silver axe lodged in his spine in complete shock and then quickly try to save my dying companions.


That was my first ever Living Greyhawk experience, also my first RPGA experience. It was a blast, my lowly non-combat cleric saved the day using a weapon he wasn't proficient with. You have to love rolling two 20's in a row. Pelor was shining on me that day!

Delgar

 

[Chronosome]

That was my first ever Living Greyhawk experience, also my first RPGA experience. It was a blast, my lowly non-combat cleric saved the day using a weapon he wasn't proficient with. You have to love rolling two 20's in a row. Pelor was shining on me that day!

Delgar

Sweet, man...great stuff.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

It's back during the big buildup to the release of the Third Edition Player's Handbook. My brothers and I are all waiting with bated breath, and our game has never been quite so motivated.

Our DM runs Die, Vecna, Die.

Now, all of our characters have histories with Vecna, with mine probably the one who hates him most. I'm playing a Troll Fighter/Rogue (Assassin kit). Vecna's priests have boiled me in oil, sandblasted me, poisoned me, dismembered me, and even had a hand in my abduction at the hands of illithids. I've killed two of his proxies and placed the Eye of Vecna into a hog's eyesocket.

We follow the adventure, sneak through Vecna's temple, and make our way to Sigil, causing an enviable amount of collateral damage along the way. The DM even tells me, repeatedly, how pleased Vaprak is with the work I'm doing. We reach Vecna, and after several attempts to lure him outside, the DM informs us that Vecna simply will not leave the temple where he's holed up.

We bring the whole temple down around his head to make him less attached to it, and he finally gives chase. He chases us across the rooftops of Sigil, from Ward to Ward to Ward, until I decide to turn around and maul him.

Vecna makes short work of me. I'm lying at his feet when our cleric (a follower of St. Cuthbert) zings a few spells off of him to get his attention. These prove largely ineffectual. Then, Silvanus, a half elf single-class Fighter (with level limits in place-- he's 9th level) charges Vecna, sword bared--

-- and tackles Vecna, who trips over my prone body (I'm at -40. It'll be awhile before I regenerate enough to get back up).

They both tumble right over the edge of the roof, off the side of Sigil-- into nothingness. Sigil and the rest of the multiverse are saved-- and since Vecna wasn't destroyed, just forced violently into complete non-existence, he can't even come back to haunt us.