Something cool my players did.

[RogueRonin]

I am DMing an Eberron campaign right now, and I think the players are really having fun. In last night's game, the party was their way back to Sharn from Lakeside in Karrnath, and they decided to take a shortcut through Mournland. They fought some monsters on their way through Mournland; one in particular was a gorgon. They killed the gorgon with minimal casualties (only one character petrified), and went on their way. However, they took the corpse of the gorgon with them. When they got back to Sharn, they took the gorgon to a taxidermist to have it preserved and stuffed. They also had a cantrip enchanted on it so the nostrils would always have a little bit of (harmless) green smoke coming from them. So now the party has a museum quality stuffed gorgon, rearing up on its hind legs with green smoke coming out of its nose. What to do now… Well, take it to the House Cannith headquarters and present it as a gift. The party had been working for Lady Elaydren, and they wanted to have it put on display at the headquarters. So House Cannith had a small party with a bunch of high-class rich folk from Sharn, and they unveiled the gorgon there.
I thought this was a pretty cool idea. It reminded me of the scene in Brotherhood of the Wolf, when they unveil the fake monster to make it seem like they killed it. I kept picturing that scene in my mind. I gave a little extra roleplaying experience than usual for that session, and since we are taking a break from Eberron for a couple months (players going off to school), I thought it was a great note to end on. Anyone here care to comment or share some memorable moments like this one?

 

[rkanodia]

Pretty cool!

If I were the DM, I would have had some Emerald Claw agents get wind of the gorgon, and try to steal it for use in researching, say, a poison for turning people to stone. But I'm just evil like that

"It belongs in a museum!"

 

[Piratecat]

That's great! Now someone wil cast animate object on it during an elaborate banquet, the PCs will get blamed, and the heroes can track down the true villain.

 

[Jolly Giant]

Ah, creative players... Consider yourself blessed, RR!

I've had a couple of NPC wizards with small collections of monster-bits in their studies; wall-mounted dragonheads, shrunken goblin heads, dried demon wings etc.

I also had a PC rogue/wizard (arcane trickster wannabe) who was always collecting souvenirs from every place he visited and from every defeated monster/enemy. He had behir-teeth necklace, an orc-skin coat, a dwarven warhammer with a broken handle, a "voodoo-doll" from a goblin shaman and a ton of other stuff. Unfortnuately he wasn't very strong, so he was always begging the other partymembers to carry all this weird stuff around for him. Not always popular...

 

[RogueRonin]

Ah, creative players... Consider yourself blessed, RR!

I've had a couple of NPC wizards with small collections of monster-bits in their studies; wall-mounted dragonheads, shrunken goblin heads, dried demon wings etc.

I also had a PC rogue/wizard (arcane trickster wannabe) who was always collecting souvenirs from every place he visited and from every defeated monster/enemy. He had behir-teeth necklace, an orc-skin coat, a dwarven warhammer with a broken handle, a "voodoo-doll" from a goblin shaman and a ton of other stuff. Unfortnuately he wasn't very strong, so he was always begging the other partymembers to carry all this weird stuff around for him. Not always popular...

Yes indeed, they are a good bunch of players. I have a player who is just like the one you mentioned. He is constantly making things out of dead monsters. His dog almost got killed by a wolf golem, so as a little momento, he made a wolf-golem tooth necklace for the dog. Stuff like that just kinda makes the game that much more enjoyable, in its own way.

 

[Hypersmurf]

That's great! Now someone wil cast animate object on it during an elaborate banquet, the PCs will get blamed, and the heroes can track down the true villain.

I see someone casting "Flesh to Stone" on Lady Cannith's children, one at a time over the course of a few weeks, and placing the statues in the room with the stuffed Gorgon at midnight.

-Hyp.

 

[RogueRonin]

These plot ideas are evil. I wonder how my players would handle that... Besides getting pissed at me out of game for messing around with their thoughtful gift. Well, you know what that means. I will have to try it and find out!

 

[Piratecat]

The secret is waiting until some time has passed, and make sure they enjoy the benefits of giving such a cool gift first. That way they'll try such things again in the future. You don't want to punish creativity.

 

[Shadeus]

You don't want to punish creativity.

And if you do, make sure you punish creatively.

PC is right. Let them enjoy the "benefits" of the donation, but perhaps after the next adventure or two have a messenger or a wizard teleport in and give them a message that their gorgon is turning people to stone!

 

[RogueRonin]

Indeed, I wouldn't want to make them think I am doing it to discourage creativity. However, next session, they are on their way to Xen'drik for the first time. That adventure will take quite a few weeks. So when they come back...