Of Wooden Ships and Flaming Men

[Lord Judas]

Figured id post for opinions. My characters did "something I did not expect{tm}".

The party had just completed a dive to a sunken city to retrieve an ancient and mysterious Book, untouched by the ravages of time and the sea. As they got under way on the hired cargo ship(named the Stallion), they were immediately attacked by raiders who knew where they were, when, and what to look for. The battle was brutal. Heres a chunk from my post game recap that I send out after each game:

"What happened next was easily the most savage combat of the campaign thus far. The enemy opened fire with a strange device that Kai recognized as something known as a 'Cannon'. Meanwhile, an Imperial War Mage made his presence felt with a sizzling fireball that shook the Stallion as the Raiders closed in. Below the seas, Cararyn[cleric] creativly sabatoged their ship by swimming to the hull and summoning a Magma elemental on the inside."

Of course, the ship, carrying such items as Gun Powder, burned readily and finally exploded and sank. However the battle was not finished:

"On the Stallion, several poor souls were seperated from their mortal coils as Djamal[evil Bar.10, Raging, +1 Great Axe of Bane, Legendary stats] was unleashed to devastating effect. Cararyn, freshly returned from her swim, was quickly laid low with a few swings of Djamal's Great Axe. His blade, black as night, was then turned on Erdrick who was brutally slain."

Ok, enough flavor. The question is, that I really didnt expect the Cleric to sink the entire ship, killing its crew (all evil, no morality problems). What reward should do you think I should assign for this outcome? Party is Level 8 on average.

 

[Lord Judas]

Correction by the Cleric in question: That was a Magma Mephit.

 

[pogre]

Figured id post for opinions. My characters did "something I did not expect{tm}".

The question is, that I really didnt expect the Cleric to sink the entire ship, killing its crew (all evil, no morality problems). What reward should do you think I should assign for this outcome? Party is Level 8 on average.

So the cleric died performing a heroic and inventive deed basically?

Give 'em the full amount plus a story bonus.

 

[frankthedm]

i would let the player keep the cleric's xp total for the next character.

 

[UltimaGabe]

A while ago, one of my characters (Saethorn Velundar, a Cleric of Wee Jas) was in a little solo adventure apart from the rest of my group where, in his travels, came across a small town called Escrermarsh. Escrermarsh had been tormented by some sort of demon for years, and nobody knew much about it- it would appear, seemingly at random, every few months or so, grab some peasant, then teleport away. The person's body would be found a few days later, horribly and savagely torn to shreds.

Being a village of nothing but commoners, they could do nothing but pray to every known god for someone to come and relieve them of this horror. For years, nobody came. More and more people were killed. It seemed there would be no respite from their horrible fate. Then came Saethorn.

Not sure what to make of this town, Saethorn agreed to help out this little village in exchange for a place to rest, and he "grudgingly" accepted all of the praise and near-worship of these peasants as they could barely believe a savior had finally come to them. He was shown around Escremarsh by the town's mayor, who dreamed of some day becoming an adventurer, but not having the drive to leave his semi-peaceful town and seek fortune in the world. Saethorn had given him a magical rod he found in a previous adventure- it had a few neat powers, such as a bolt of force 3x/day, or a bolt of negative energy 1x,day, or the ability to summon a beefed-up skeleton that followed the wielder's commands 2x/day. He told the mayor that if he was ever away when the demon came back, he was to use it to protect himself- hoping that it could at least distract the attacker long enough for everyone to get away.

Not knowing what he had gotten himself into, Saethorn searched around town for clues, eventually tracking the origin of the beast to a little boy that lived in the town decades before, who had spent his entire life being ridiculed and looked down upon by the rest of the village. It was Saethorn's belief that this boy had, over the course of many years, gained the knowledge and power to bind a demon into his service and use it to exact his revenge on this town. He decided to wait- wait for the monster to come back, so he could put an end to it and rid this town of their fear.

Eventually, the demon returned. And Saethorn met it in the town swuare at nighttime, ready to do battle. He was a decent level for the challenge (he was around level 5 or 6, and I believe the demon was around a CR 5 or 6 as well), but it would definitely be challenging. But I hoped he'd be able to take it out eventually.

The battle went horribly. I rolled poorly on all of my Caster Level checks to overcome the demon's Spell Resistance, and so half of my most useful spells didn't do anything to it. Not only that, it was constantly dispelling all of my buffs, so there was little I could do to prepare myself. And worse still, it could turn invisible, and did so without much hesitation. But Saethorn had to win- he just had to- all of these people depended on him, and viewed him as some sort of savior.

The battle ended with my character being knocked somewhere below -5 hit points. He woke up in a bed a week or so later- and demanded to know what had happened. As it turned out, the mayor, seeing Saethorn had been felled by the horrid beast, stepped forth. While he distracted the demon, the townspeople pulled their "savior" to safety and poured a potion down his throat that they had kept hidden away for some emergency. The mayor stepped forth, wielding the rod Saethorn had given him, and did his best to slay the monster. He missed, and the monster killed him. It left once it had shed innocent blood.

Saethorn felt horrible. He had not only failed at doing what he promised he would do for the town, he had caused the death of one of their most respected members. But the town felt otherwise... the demon had not been sighted since, and as far as any of them could tell, it was his fault. Besides, the mayor died the way he would have wanted to- standing tall in the face of danger, like a true adventurer.

Then came time to hand out XP for this solo adventure. I told the DM I didn't expect to get full XP, of course, but she said otherwise- and one of the other players, having spent several years training in martial arts, mentioned that just because you don't win doesn't mean you don't learn anything. In fact, some of his best learning experiences were being beaten by someone who was genuinely better than him. It's the same way in D&D.

 

[shilsen]

Ok, enough flavor. The question is, that I really didnt expect the Cleric to sink the entire ship, killing its crew (all evil, no morality problems). What reward should do you think I should assign for this outcome? Party is Level 8 on average.

* Give the group full XP for defeating everyone on the ship.

* Get a bard to make a song about the heroic cleric.

* Let the party travel to Glub-Glub-Aaargh-I'm-Burning-AND-Drowning, the plane where the magma mephits live, and meet the magma mephit hero who was honored for travelling to the material plane and sinking a entire ship.

* Memorize Rule 0.5 - Thou shalt not expect thy players to do anything.

 

[Dogbrain]

Another unexpectedly huge victory (old AD&D rules): The party was at sea. The PC wizard had just picked up (and had memorized) Polymorph Other recently. A pirate ship showed up, complete with a war wizard in the crow's nest, casting spells that were taking a toll. The war wizard was suitably protected from missiles. The PC magic user said that he was looking for the schmuckiest schmuck on the pirate ship. I told him he could easily find several. I figured he was going to try to clobber several with a Fireball in order to try to break their morale. No such luck.

The little so-and-so cast Polymorph Other at the nobody pirate (zero level), and polymorphed him into a sperm whale! The pirate failed his save and there was a sperm whale amidships on the pirate ship. The battle was quite short, given that a wooden ship just wasn't build to have an angry sperm whale thrashing around on it. Then the PCs had to deal with an angry sperm whale. One Dispel Magic from the PC magic user, and they filled the hapless pirate (human again) with arrows.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Is no one going to make the obvious joke about a sailing ship full of "flaming" men? Will no one set sail upon the Raging Queen and be nailed to the hull?

Pansies.

 

[William Ronald]

* Give the group full XP for defeating everyone on the ship.

* Get a bard to make a song about the heroic cleric.

* Let the party travel to Glub-Glub-Aaargh-I'm-Burning-AND-Drowning, the plane where the magma mephits live, and meet the magma mephit hero who was honored for travelling to the material plane and sinking a entire ship.

* Memorize Rule 0.5 - Thou shalt not expect thy players to do anything.

Good suggestions. Also, I think the party should probably gain more respect from their allies and sailors who oppose their raiders. However, I think any raiders in the area might be interested in seeing if the party is as tough as the song about the heroic cleric claims. The funeral service for the cleric might be a good place to introduce new characters and new allies, if you chose to have such an event in game.

The cleric should perhaps become a role model and an inspiration for those of his faith. Perhaps in the future, when players express an interest in playing a cleric, include a little bit about the heroic cleric as an archetype for the campaign. Also, the cleric's deity might gain a little more worship from those who suffered from the raiders. Lord Judas, you have a chance to take this adventure and help give some local flavor to a part of your campaign world. So, make the most of it.

 

[Rabelais]

You owe me a new keyboard

Let the party travel to Glub-Glub-Aaargh-I'm-Burning-AND-Drowning, the plane where the magma mephits live, and meet the magma mephit hero who was honored for travelling to the material plane and sinking a entire ship.

I spit out an entire glass of Diet Coke on my keyboard when I read this.