Cheiromancer
Adventurer
Took a break from DMing, and got mauled by the bear in the forge. From full to negative 23 in one round. 
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Humbling defeats
- Thread starter EricNoah
- Start date
Berandor
lunatic
I was playing a wizard, and we came to a dungeon door. Behind it, there was a small room with two chained and very mangy dogs, as well as several arrow slits in the side walls.
My wizard had a potion of protection from arrows, and I thought his time to shine had come. I quaffed the potion and mimicked striding into the room with outstretched arms, beckoning any attackers to come forward and, well, attack. Full of confidence, arrogance, even hubris.
Hubris is never good.
The arrow slits were empty, but one critical hit and one normal hit by the dogs (normal dogs!), and my wizard was reduced by twentysomething hit points to only three. That taught me.
Of course, the fact that our fighter decided to keep the dog that scored a critical as his pet was a bit too much.
My wizard had a potion of protection from arrows, and I thought his time to shine had come. I quaffed the potion and mimicked striding into the room with outstretched arms, beckoning any attackers to come forward and, well, attack. Full of confidence, arrogance, even hubris.
Hubris is never good.
The arrow slits were empty, but one critical hit and one normal hit by the dogs (normal dogs!), and my wizard was reduced by twentysomething hit points to only three. That taught me.
Of course, the fact that our fighter decided to keep the dog that scored a critical as his pet was a bit too much.
Ogrork the Mighty
Explorer
I remember running an adventure where the PCs were visiting a farm. I forget why but there were clues to be gained from the family living their or in the farmhouse itself. This particular farm had a bull/oxen in the fields, just for flavour. For reasons beyond me, the PCs decided to provoke and attack the bull. What resulted was one dead character and at least one other seriously wounded. And the bull remained alive! It was one of those stupid situations where someone said "Let's provoke the bull!" without any of us realizing how strong bulls actually were in relation to their low-level characters. It was a pretty funny (and embarassing), um, "encounter".
Steel_Wind
Legend
Giant goat? Nasty Kittens? Animated furniture and rugs?
Those things are mean!
Two sessions ago - my players nearly had a TPK at the hands of a dead wyvern.
No no no. Not a live wyvern (they already killed it you see).
Not an undead wyvern - that would be nasty.
A dead wyvern. As in stone cold dead wyvern.
After their mighty deed of killing said wyvern in a nasty fight, the dwarf in the party thought he would take it upon himself to harvest the wyvern's poison gland.
He had no skill whatsoever to attempt the task. It was made clear to him that is would be potentially nasty should he fail the DC15 by more than 5. 'Not to worry" says Gawgower of Kayolin.
Rolls... 3.
2d6 con results after a failed fort save which brought him at the time to -2 hits and dying. He is stabilized.
Now the wizard attempts it using his alchemy skill as a modifier. He is far far more competent than the dwarf. "I'll give it a go".
The ranger is shouting at him now to stop: "WHY! It's too dangerous! Stop it!!".
"Bah. Nothing ventured.... <roll>"
3.
"Urk...gah" 2d6 con and a barely saved roll on the secondary...
-4 hit points. Ranger stabilizes the wizard. Warns the rest of the party away from the deadly dead wyvern.
Not to be deterred, the kender sneaks by the ranger later that night and fails too. He's dropped to 4 hits. Not quite dying but moaning...
The ranger is now livid. I entice him by allowing a survival skill roll to harvest it. He scowls. No more fish left to bite on that worm.
By this point I'm laughing, already mentally drafting the post to ENWorld thinking about how I almost had a near TPK at the hands of the dead wyvern...
Those things are mean!
Two sessions ago - my players nearly had a TPK at the hands of a dead wyvern.
No no no. Not a live wyvern (they already killed it you see).
Not an undead wyvern - that would be nasty.
A dead wyvern. As in stone cold dead wyvern.
After their mighty deed of killing said wyvern in a nasty fight, the dwarf in the party thought he would take it upon himself to harvest the wyvern's poison gland.
He had no skill whatsoever to attempt the task. It was made clear to him that is would be potentially nasty should he fail the DC15 by more than 5. 'Not to worry" says Gawgower of Kayolin.
Rolls... 3.
2d6 con results after a failed fort save which brought him at the time to -2 hits and dying. He is stabilized.
Now the wizard attempts it using his alchemy skill as a modifier. He is far far more competent than the dwarf. "I'll give it a go".
The ranger is shouting at him now to stop: "WHY! It's too dangerous! Stop it!!".
"Bah. Nothing ventured.... <roll>"
3.
"Urk...gah" 2d6 con and a barely saved roll on the secondary...
-4 hit points. Ranger stabilizes the wizard. Warns the rest of the party away from the deadly dead wyvern.
Not to be deterred, the kender sneaks by the ranger later that night and fails too. He's dropped to 4 hits. Not quite dying but moaning...
The ranger is now livid. I entice him by allowing a survival skill roll to harvest it. He scowls. No more fish left to bite on that worm.
By this point I'm laughing, already mentally drafting the post to ENWorld thinking about how I almost had a near TPK at the hands of the dead wyvern...
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
Old One said:There was something shiny at the bottom of the pond. The PCs wanted it. One dove in - critical failure on her swim roll (in Grim Tales, the DM can award an action point by inflicting a crit failure on "natural 1"). Starts drowning.
She is followed by another...and another...and yet another. I don't think I have ever seen such a series of poor rolls (followed by even more poor rolls). I think 2/3's of the party end up tangling with the "Tranquil Pond of Doom". They eventually haul everyone out and the healer PC manages to revive the 95% dead first victim.
I think I need to put that pond down as a CR10 hazard!
Count Your Chickens
1995 Darwin Awards Runner-Up
(31 August 1995, Egypt) Six people drowned Monday while trying to rescue a chicken that had fallen into a well in southern Egypt. An 18 year old farmer was the first to descend into the 60-foot well. He drowned, apparently after an undercurrent in the water pulled him down. Police said his sister and two brothers, none of whom could swim well, went in one by one to help him, but also drowned. Two elderly farmers then came to help. But they were apparently pulled down by the same undercurrent. The bodies of the six were later pulled out of the well in the village of Nazlat Imara, 240 miles south of Cairo. The chicken was also pulled out. It survived.
-Hyp.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
I killed a level 10 rogue/fighter during his training mission to become an assassin once.
He snuck out of his hotel room, fumbles the Use Ropes roll, and plummeted out of the window down to the floor below. Ow.
Fumbled his climb roll several times trying to get into the house he was targetting. Decided to jump the wall. Fumbled that too and ran smack into the outer wall. Ow.
Smashed the skylight at midnight, waking the entire household.
He was finally stabbed in a massive critical. By the butler.
It was at that point that the player realised that it'd be easier to just roll up a custom built assassin with his new character...
He snuck out of his hotel room, fumbles the Use Ropes roll, and plummeted out of the window down to the floor below. Ow.
Fumbled his climb roll several times trying to get into the house he was targetting. Decided to jump the wall. Fumbled that too and ran smack into the outer wall. Ow.
Smashed the skylight at midnight, waking the entire household.
He was finally stabbed in a massive critical. By the butler.
It was at that point that the player realised that it'd be easier to just roll up a custom built assassin with his new character...
JackGiantkiller
First Post
Sigh. I'm running Forge of Fury right now. My players snuck down the chimney. We ended the last session on a cliffhanger, fighting the bear, half the party down, fearing a TPK. This is much more than a coincidence. Wish I'd seen this thread before i ran the module...I don't normally run modules.
Warrior Poet
Explorer
Wild. Us, too. A remarkable set of circumstances, and a remarkable set of rolls, and we defeated the roper (with the help of a large body of water).toberane said:
It was the stirges that sent all of us scurrying.
Warrior Poet
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