PC lost in vague ending

[Bullgrit]

There was one PC in a very old campaign of mine that had what I think is a pretty cool ending.

The PC was a human fighter/thief (AD&D1, I was the DM) who had just escaped from a drow/goblin allied group, in the middle of a dark forest, diseased, poisoned, and wounded, with no equipment. We ended the game there, and after a few days of thinking on it, the Player thought we should just not pick up that game again. He didn't think the PC was going to survive any more challenges in his environment, and he thought it a very cool idea that his story end there, vague, with no follow through till death.

The PC was just "lost," not killed. It also held open the hope that one day he could pick up the character again with the end of that story and the beginning of any new one maybe handwaved. We never did bring that character back into any game, but still, 20 years later, we could.

Have you had/seen any PC-story end with a vague, not-on-screen-death situation?

Bullgrit

 

[Nagol]

My favourite PC was a MU/Thief that had researched a spell that create a temporary portable hole a la the magic item.

The group was ambushed by a tough demon and things were going poorly. My character cast the spell and he and the paladin jumped in to repair and refurbish while waiting for reinforcements to arrive picking up the hole from the inside.

The DM timed us and my spell ran out before we tried to exit. The two of us were trapped -- lost in an extradimensional space with no exit. The paladin could create sufficient food and water to feed us and I could create a garbage facility, but we didn't have any way to get out and the party didn't have the resources to get to us.

 

[steeldragons]

There was one PC in a very old campaign of mine that had what I think is a pretty cool ending.

The PC was a human fighter/thief (AD&D1, I was the DM)

-snip-

We never did bring that character back into any game, but still, 20 years later, we could.

1e human fighter/thief you say? Dude's a 1e Master Bard by now! Possibly even head of his own druidic order at this point. hahaha.

But yes, cool story and thread idea. Afraid I can't think of any situation to add. (also back in the "must spread some around" loop again. Sorry.)

--SD

 

[amerigoV]

As GM, finishing up Return to the Temple of Elemental Eeeevil. I did a big fight with Hedrack, Lareth, as some other baddies in the recovered temple (heh, got to throw out a great quote "This is now a Fully Functional Temple of Elemental Evil"). I advanced the timeline to keep the pressure on...big T was ending the world that night.

Bodies were hitting the floor at a furious pace on both sides. Lerath fled. It was down to the party's ranger and Hedrack. Hedrack hit her with Harm...PC is down to 2hp. But he had to move to her to inflict the spell. She unloads with a huge number of attacks with a quarterstaff of Wounding. Kills him, leaving him a dry husk.

Everyone else is dead, but T is coming in a few hours if she does not kill Lareth, who has likely fled to an elemental node (which is at full strength).

Fade to black with the ranger strapping on every magic item she can salvage ala Ripley in Aliens going after Newt/the Queen.

 

[Crothian]

The closest I had was in a game of Shadowrun where my troll got seperated from the others and was running away from the bad guys. The DM was dividing his time between the different PCs since the job went really bad and we were doomed. So, everyone else got killed off except my Troll which the DM had forgotten about. We aren't sure what happened to him.

 

[[OMENRPG]Ben]

While running my longest campaign, the story was evolving to a point where the PCs were approaching the final confrontation (as it happens, with a twisted Primordial who wished to destroy and recreate the world to his preference) and one of the principle characters was an elf ranger named Naon.

Naon had traveled somewhat reluctantly with the party since level 1, and was played fastidiously by one of my friends I had known since middle school. He was quiet, resolute, and very well thought out by the player in a very dedicated elf sort of way. Naon belonged to a group of rangers and wardens, who felt an incredible obligation to maintain the tenuous balance between nature and civilization (as well as kill the monsters that sometimes escaped the deepest woods).

At the time, the party was approaching early epic, and Naon had felt a great responsibility in allowing one of the Primordial's kin to rampage through his home forest. He led a side-campaign for the next few months (real world time) with different characters than the main party, which ended up heading south to his homeland and fighting off the twisted and bestial plants and creatures that the lesser Primordial had created.

It got to a point where the rest of the party had prepared for the final, prophecized battle with the hateful Primordial. As Naon was engaged in his own battle, but well aware of when the exact time was to occur (due to the sun rising on a certain day) he led a small suicide squad to help in the struggle and defeat the evil in the side campaign, liberating his homeland and hopefully assisting the primary party in the process. It actually worked out really well, as we never made it clear if he survived or not, and I did not wish to DM two super-climactic mega-boss fights, and therefore left it vague, although plausible that he survived due to the heroes "winning" the battle.

In later games with a different group set in the same universe, his character is now the grizzled leader of the ranger organization that he was just a young acolyte in at level one. I never updated the original player, but I'm sure he would be interested to see how the new PCs react to the legendary ranger.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Oh gods, this takes me back.

I was running a 1e game, in a huge sprawling dungeon (I think the last such that I ever used).

The thief snuck away from the group, hoping to do some private 'treasure hunting', and got lost.

He eventually found a treasure chamber, and stepped boldly inside. Once inside the door promptly closed and vanished, leaving him trapped.

Undaunted, the thief pulled out a bottle containing a genie.

'What do you wish, my master' intoned the slave of the bottle.

Posing proudly the thief commanded 'make me a door!'

And so the wily genie turned the thief into a door, and left him in the treasure vault, vanishing away, taking his bottle with him.

Much later the rest of the party also found the treasure chamber, unlike the roguish thief they spiked the door open in their wake.

Seeing the hoard the wizard cast Detect Magic, and several items began to glow, including a door lying in the middle of the floor....

Convinced that it was a magic portal of some sort the brave adventurers took it with them, hoping one day to learn what mystic vista that it might open upon. To my knowledge, they might carry that door with them yet, bearing no witness to the fate of their erstwhile thief....

The player of the thief thought that it was one of the funniest things that he had ever seen, and I don't think that he ever told the party that his character was the door!

The Auld Grump

 

[Dioltach]

In a campaign set in Middle Earth, using a hybrid of D&D3.0 and Wheel of Time rules, I shared DMing duties with one of the other players. When it came time for me to take over again, the party were being chased by a pack of Wargs. They crossed a bridge, and I decided that my character, a Dwarven Armsman, would stay to hold the Wargs off while the rest made their escape. Since I was the DM for the remainder of the campaign, we never had to decide whether my character survived.

 

[Quickleaf]

Does ending a game with your rogue dead (again) and the other PCs arguing over whether or not to raise him count?

 

[haakon1]

Does to me, Quickleaf. In a world with Resurrection, nearly every dead PC is really more on hibernate.

If the last PC jumps off the bridge into the subterranean river chasm in Shackled City Adventure Path's Life's Bizarre adventure, Malachite Fortress adventure, because the rest of the party got TPK'd, does he count as dead or just on hold because the campaign ended?

I say just dead . . .