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Message: <blockquote data-quote="STARP_Social_Officer" data-source="post: 3189727" data-attributes="member: 41202">This is a lesson for arrogant PCs (and players)In my all-mage scavenger hunt campaign, the PCs have been asked to retrieve, among others, the body of a dead Storm Giant. Now, I don't mind that the PCs selected the country of Geoff as the best place to start. I don't mind them trying to teleport there. But this...this...well...The player read the entire spell description through twice. Now, I should point out that while the party is all-mage, not all of them are wizards. We were missing a player that day, and another (the leader) was late, so the party consisted of just the bard and the half-dragon warmage, as well as the elf wizard NPC. Only the elf has access to a teleport spell.The bard thought it would be great if the three of them could pop over to Geoff, grab a Storm Giant, kill it, and bring back the body. How they planned to teleport a giant's body, which weighs thousands of tons, I don't know. But anyway, he wanted to impress the party leader when he finally showed up, so he declared that's what he would do. The half-dragon, who is 2nd in command, had no specific objection. So, I then asked the question.ME: OK. How will you teleport there when you've never been there? You need to know where you're going, remember?BARD: Well, has Laucien [the elf NPC] been there?ME: Nope.BARD: Hmm...OK. Can you teleport using a painting as a reference guide?Now, I laughed extremely hard when he said that, but, when I was finally stable enough to think about it, I read the spell description and realised that you probably can, since it doesn't say anything about it. I agreed that such a thing would be possible, but that it would count only as 'viewed once' and even then, I would be adding 10 to the teleport roll. The bard player thought this was fair. The half-dragon player had that "we're going to die" expression, but he didn't say anything.So they went to an art gallery, found a painting of a Geoff landscape, and used it as their guide. First, I rolled 98, which means a mishap. After taking 5 hp damage from the scramble, I rolled again, to discover they had landed about 500 miles off-course. Rolling for direction and consulting my map, I discovered that this put them right in the middle of a desert. Because I was having some sadistic fun, I ruled that a sandstorm was in progress, so the PCs arrived and instantly fell into the foetal position. They got out of that jam with a handy secure shelter, and after a series of violent encounters with a band of nomads (and their flame strike-happy 13th level Cleric), they eventually managed to get away. Here's where the arrogant bit came in.BARD (to Laucien): I don't want you casting the spell. You buggered it up last time.ME (as Laucien): Alright. Let's just ask that other wizard...oh, wait, it's just me here!BARD: Just put it on a scroll. I'll cast it.ME (as me): Can you do that? What's your Use Magic Device rating?BARD: Plus thirty.ME: Hmm. OK. Laucien takes some time to scribe the spell onto a scroll for you. He says "alright, song and dance man. You want to try this, be my guest." Then he puts his fingers in his ears and closes his eyes.BARD: My Use Magic Device check...succeeds. I did it!ME: No mishap?BARD: Nuh. (gave me the two fingers in jubilation).ME: OK...I rolled for destination, and got 'similar area'. Because I was having so much fun, I broke the rules a little and ruled that the 'similar area' wasn't even in the Flanaess! They ended up running from savage tribesmen who were out for their heads - after a fight with a couple of shamblers, that is. Oh, and a tendriculos. They eventually got home, to arrive at the feet of the leader, who had now returned. They were scratched, had torn clothing, and the bard was covered in mucus and saliva.LEADER: Did you get the giant?HALF-DRAGON: Not so much.Let this be a lesson: trust your wizard. No matter how good you think you are, he's better at his job than you are at yours. And don't use a painting as a teleport aide.</blockquote>

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