Speaking of Sacrifice

[Beale Knight]

One of my characters ... deliberately covered the retreat of his fellow party members. ... Thought the guy was a goner, ... He made it however. His horse did not. Bards all over Maissen sing songs of her passion, fury and devotion now.

Because that horse Killed an OGRE!

That's a good horse.

 

[Errant]

Have you had any interesting situations in your games where a PC has willingly sacrificed themselves?

Its a bit long, but worth the build up I think...

I once ran a Greyhawk campaign with a modified ravenloft cross-over adventure (Roots of Evil, available on the WoTC website now) that ended with the PCs unwittingly causing a crisis that threatened to merge Ravenloft with Greyhawk, attracting all sorts of divine attention both good and evil. The group's ranger, Lorac, was reluctant to pledge himself to a divine geas to fix the problem & he ended up being infected with lycanthropy by the bite of a cursed werewolf. His local church couldn't cure him so they loaned him a junior cleric & sent him in search of the Mielikki's high(est) priestess in a border town two kingdoms away. She was too busy helping refugees fleeing woodlands threatened by humanoid invasion to perform the cure ritual so she sent him off in search of a magic cauldron that would help feed the refugees & give her some spare time.

On the way to the giants' lair where the cauldron was supposed to be they came across a small walled village besieged by undead. A night-battle followed when the village was attacked besieging zombies, supported by trolls and the orcs behind the seige. Woken from sleep by the attack, barely dressed but wielding his beloved flame tongue long sword, Lorac ended up leaping off the wall into the midst of the attackers to battle a group of trolls wielding a battering ram against the village gates. Barely surviving, surprised to survive at all in fact, he killed about 4 out of 6 trolls and did enough damage to break the attackers morale and they fled.

In the aftermath, with the PCs pondering how to defend the village and continue their quest they were approached by the village headwoman: she had some simple illusion spells at her command, if the ranger could see fit to give his sword to one of the villagers she could use her spells to make it seem as if the Lorac was still there protecting the villagers while they fled to safety. Sadly they had nothing to offer in return even close to the value of the sword.

Lorac didn't hesitate, he immediately gave up his prized sword, the most powerful magic item in the group, with no promise or hint of reward.

The young cleric travelling with the group, usually forgotten by the players because he was so quiet revealed his true form. A deva (angel) sent by Mielikki to secretly watch Lorac and see if he was worth saving. Declaring Lorac to be worthy, the deva gave him his own sword (what can I say, I was impressed by the sacrifice) before disappearing into the night with the promise that he would watch over the villagers, allowing the PCs to continue their quest with clear consciences.