PC Curveballs and Tales of the Weird

[Soul Stigma]

From another thread I got the idea to feature an enchanted door in a dungeon, one originally intended as a trap and poser of riddles, but which had gained sentience over centuries. The door was bored, having performed this function for so long and then spending ages without even a visitor.

When the party found it, the door was so bored with its existence that it relished the conversation and had no desire to lure them into traps or even prevent their passing through. From my perspective it was intended as a quirky RP opportunity and I expected them to "befriend" the door enough to move on.

Instead, the sorceress got the idea to make a deal with the door: in return for letting them pass, they would remove the door from its hinges, put it in their bag of holding and proceed to show it the world through their travels... Since the door had never known anything other than the corridor it guarded, this was an amazing opportunity for it.

The Bag of Holding has a mouth diameter of two feet, and I decided that being stretched into an extreme oval was close enough to handle the door's width (because putting an enchanted door in the bag to show it the world is a lot more interesting than "no it won't fit"). So they indeed the party began carrying the door around. They asked it its name and it replied, "I don't have a name. What name would you call me if you were naming a door?" His name is now Jim. As in Jim Morrison, because he's a door, lol.

So how about other DMs - what kind of weird curveballs have you been thrown by your players? Alternatively, if you're a player, what weird ideas have you come up with that the DM didn't see coming?

 

[Henry]

Back in 2nd Edition days, I wanted to get my players interested in Spelljammer, so the ultimate treasure in a dungeon was a minor Spelljamming helm. I expected their adventurous natures to kick in and they would get a ship, mount up, and explore the solar system.

Instead, they just mounted it to a longship, hired a young cleric to fly it, and used it to fly everywhere on-planet quickly. Not too crazy, but it's kind of like inheriting a Lamborghini, and using it to run grocery errands.

 

[Soul Stigma]

Back in 2nd Edition days, I wanted to get my players interested in Spelljammer, so the ultimate treasure in a dungeon was a minor Spelljamming helm. I expected their adventurous natures to kick in and they would get a ship, mount up, and explore the solar system.

Instead, they just mounted it to a longship, hired a young cleric to fly it, and used it to fly everywhere on-planet quickly. Not too crazy, but it's kind of like inheriting a Lamborghini, and using it to run grocery errands.

Still unexpected PC shenanigans!

 

[Fractal Rabbit]

The 2E (c. 1993) yet still infamous and talked about to this day, Bachelor Party.

Scenario: An evil nobleman is also the high priest of an upstart cult. And he intends to:

A) Marry the beautiful daughter of a rival nobleman. The would-be bride is ignorant of the Villain's true nature and has been fooled by his high charisma.

B) He intends to sacrifice her to his cult's upstart "deity", a minor demon with high aspirations and delusions of grandeur, on the wedding day while also killing most of the guests to "amp up" the sacrifice.


The PC's were foiled twice by attempts to sneak in before the wedding. So, the party hard party bard decided to pool money and buy a sh#* ton of beer, wine and food (as well, as hire some attractive "ladies") and bluff his way in on the pretense of a bachelor party. Our thief forged necessary documents and they snuck in and pulled it off.

It was a lot of fun.