Simply AMAZING!

[mirivor]

I do not normally share personal adventures here, but the most recent session wound up being one of the most extraordinary that I have ever been a part of. I am normally the DM of our rather large group, but my recent campaign was drawn to a successful close by the players. Another player stepped up and started a new campaign in which our PCs had reached 3rd level. Last night, or this Wednesday, we adventured for some little time and accumulated enough XP to gain 4th level. At the end of the first major fight, we wound up in possession of several artifacts, inlcuding a Staff of the Magi, an Orb of Dragonkind, a Book of Exalted Deeds, and finally a Deck of Many Things. Cool, but we couldn't use most of them, as it would arouse great suspicion amongst the locals.... given that we relieved the local bad guy of them. The Deck and Book were open to us, though. The DM has storyline reasons for the majority of the items, for those of you who, like me, thought that this was ridiculous at first. Anyway....

So the characters retire to their inn to ponder exactly what in the nine hells they are going to do. The Orb and Staff were safely stowed in a Haversack, but the Deck proved to be beyond their will to resist. So the Battle Sorcerer whips out his one card from the deck of 15: The Star.... He gains a +2 inherent bonus to any one score. Cool! \
Next up is the Fighter/Paladin around whom this campaign arc revolves: The Sun!!!!! He gains a medium wondrous item and 50,000 XP... BAM! he is 11th level. WOOHOO!
The remainder of the group ponders.... alright, the Warmage steps up. His card: The Moon. He gains one wish and after much discussion and debating, he wishes for everyone to gain 4000 XP except the Fighter/Paladin. The DM, seeing the imbalance that had resulted from The Sun, allows the Wish. Everyone else is 5th level. Cool!
Now there are 4 of them left. The stubborn dwarves are reluctant, but refuse to let the wussy humans show them up. Grudge Ironbrow draws a single card from the deck and reveals another Star.
Gustus, being a stalwart ally, picks up the deck and shuffles for a few minutes before whipping the top card off of the deck to reveal..... The Sun! I could not believe it! Two Suns!!?? Holy crap!
Zahn the Druid can no longer resist and promptly announces that he will draw 2 cards! I thought, surely one of these will be bad! But the Fates would have it otherwise, and the lucky guy pulls The Fates and The Hierophant.... not bad, though surely dimmed in the awesome presence of 2 Suns!
Finally my character, Jordan, a serious halfling Wizard/Druid, is left staring at this deck of cards. After nearly 15 minutes of silent pondering, he reaches out his hands (Mine were shaking, by the way!) and takes up the cards. I have four kids, so I decided that Jordan would pull the 4th card from the top. He whips the card onto the inn floor whereupon the Warmage flips it over to reveal... THE SUN!!!! I was dumbfounded. There is no other way to say it. I sat there at the table in complete shock! We had just drawn all red cards from this deck, including not, not two, but THREE suns!!!! The other players were hooting, hollering, and yammering while I just sat there. I could not believe our luck!
Fortunately the DM had no problem with this developement. He took it all in stride, letting us know that he wasn't going to change anything or abuse our fortune. Even the players who did not draw the Suns were excited. We are figuring at least 6 weeks before the three of us gain a level, while the other players gain 4 or 5 over that same timespan.
Wicked cool... I think the most unusual and radical thing to ever happen in my 17 years of playing this awesome game. What odds-defying stories do you have? Share them here, because I would like to read them.... and maybe so would everyone else.

PS: We were allowed to look at the deck before giving it back. It contained 8 red and 7 black. Included in the black section were the 7 most powerful cards, such as "Defeat a Dread Wraith or be forever destroyed". Fate was raining her favor down on us! WOW!

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

That's pretty remarkable!
I hope the non-Sun-drawers don't feel weak in the future.

 

[Dakkareth]

Woah, I'm tempted to calculate the odds for that, but that could draw unpleasant attention - all that bad luck has to go *somewhere*, right?


And in the group I play with I'm the newcomer and my character is five levels below the others, but that doesn't make it any less fun. He stand back, excels in the narrow cast of his vocation and gives a few surprises to the others from time to time .

 

[Thanee]

I think there's a limit of one level up at a time, tho. So, most of the 50,000 XP would go into the void normally.

But anyways, that's ridiculously awesome, or awsomely ridiculous... fun stuff!

Bye
Thanee

 

[diaglo]

write a Story Hour. get the word out.

 

[Gomez]

Four artifacts for a 5th level group? Monte Haul is alive and well, Baby!

 

[BlackMoria]

Our group had a similar experience. Not quite as buff outcomes as your group but dramatic. The party consisted of 6 characters and each character choose to draw 2 cards each....and everyone drew red.

Alas, my character was fated to exit the campaign as a result of my draw. My wizard character drew TWO SUNs (remember, unless it is the jester or the fool, a drawn card is shuffled back into the deck after drawing). Holy mother - 100,000 XP and two misc magic items. My character was the only one to draw the SUN and twice at that.

Needless to say, having 100,000 more XPs than the rest of the party was too much for the DM to account for and I had to retire that character <grumble grumble grumble>.

 

[Thanee]

I think there's a limit of one level up at a time, tho. So, most of the 50,000 XP would go into the void normally.

Here is the relevant quote:

A character can advance only one level at a time. If, for some extraordinary reason, a character's XP reward from a single adventure would be enough to advance two or more levels at once, he or she instead advances only one level and gains just enough XP to be 1 XP short of the next level. Any excess experience points are not retained.

So, "The Sun" isn't that bad.

From 4th level you would advance to 5th with an XP total of 14,999.

Bye
Thanee

 

[mirivor]

Now, see.... had to ruin my fun!

I actually suspected that, but the DM seemed to want us to have this.... or he at least seems to have a place for it in our story... I do not know. But it was still VERY cool! We actually do have a monty haul type going, but it is within reason so far as it goes. The Orb is beyond us, and so is the staff. We are going to try an return the orb to Bahamut. We will see. I generally do not like free levels as I feel that they diminish the character, but we have played nearly a dozen campaigns now with no progress beyond 5th or 6th, and it is really nice to play a higher level caster. Later!

 

[Thanee]

But it was still VERY cool!

Hey, as long as everyone has fun!

Bye
Thanee