Tell me about your best (and worst) campaign endings

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

This all came to mind a little while back when someone on our groups email list was trying to remember the name of some fighting feat from the Book of 9 Swords, and thought it was called Setting Sun, or Fading Sun, or somethign like that, and I replied that "Fading Sun is the feat where you sit around for 100 years and then your PDA solves the mystery."

Ouch!

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Okay, Why are wagons evil?

Is this like gazebos?

No, its not quiet like the gazebo...

This is from one of my games, and is largely the product of one of the player's strange obsessions. The setting was very Dark Ages, primitive technology, elves and magic were distrusted, and there were no big cities or luxuries anywhere around.

The player in question created a character (Matthew) that was a half-elf fighter/wizard who was hiding the fact that he had elven blood, and that he was a wizard. I mention this just to give you a sense of how contrary the player was. He's one of those players whose primary goal is conflict within the gaming group.

In the very first adventure, the PC's took out a minor vampire who was travelling with a gypsy caravan, and took his wagon. Over the course of the next several months, Matthew sort of took over the wagon, and began loading it up with all the things that adventurers find that aren't easily disposable - bolts of cloth, old books, all of which he hoped to sell in some big city someday.

Remember how I said there weren't any big cities? And by this time, the place was getting invaded, and the PC's were trailing along behind a train of fugitives.

At one point, the PC's needed to cross a river, and Matthew refused to abandon the wagon, so they had to go twenty miles out of their way and bluff their way through an enemy checkpoint. This sort of thing went on for ages.

Later on in the game, the PC's met up with a new PC - Saduj, who was in fact a plant from the vampires who were also hoping to take over the country.

After a good while longer (with Matthew being contrary all the while - denying he was a wizard even though the PC's had seen him cast spells, etc, and dragging the wagon along, and saying things like "the invaders are more cultured than you guys maybe I should join up with them"), they came back to their original home town, which was occupied by the invaders.

They hid the wagon, and tried to sneak into town. Matthew said he was going to go in seperately by a secret way - but he wouldn't say how, and the PC's thought he might sell them out to the invaders. So they snapped, and pummelled him into unconsciousness (the PC, not the player, though it was a close call at one point).

This was the session where the traitor PC was supposed to make his turn, and get his butt kicked, and Matthew totally stole the limelight by being more untrustworthy than the vampire minion.

Matthew's player left the group after that session, as did Saduj the traitor. Saduj's player brought in a new PC. One of the PC's went over to the place where they had hidden Matthew's wagon and this is where he met the new PC. The old PC was gathering up wood and piling it up by the wagon, as the new PC walked up. There was a moment's standoff.

New PC: What are you doing?
Old PC (pulling out a torch): I'm burning this wagon.
New PC: Uh, why exactly?
Old PC: Uh... Because.... It's Eeeevillll.
New PC: (shrugs and helps the Old PC burn the wagon).

Essentially, the party excorcised the demons of Matthews annoyances by ritually burning that damned wagon. To this day I have to be careful to say "carriage" or "cart" rather than "wagon", or else there will be a brief, profanity-laced digression from the game while players rant about Matthew (and his player).