The Heroic Death

[Jack7]

Use this thread to tell the stories of the Heroic Deaths of your characters or of the deaths of characters you have witnessed while DMing or GMing.


I’ll start. The group I was DMing, the Basilegate, had been investigating an odd underground area. When they got back topside they discovered that a group of Goth barbarians had attacked the outpost town they were in and made off with hostages, notably the niece of a famous and very popular Abbot who had entrusted his niece to them - as they were acting as her guards and escorts on the way to Gallipolis.

The party split on how to handle the affair, some wanting to seek out reinforcements fearing they would have to enter enemy territory and that it was likely an ambush for them, the girl being only bait, some wanting to pursue immediately hoping they could overtake and overwhelm the Goths by surprise. Finally, one of the soldiers in the party, a man by the name of Polymethius decided he would set out immediately, with or without help. Half the team followed him on horseback, some of the others set about securing the town against possible follow-on attacks, the rest rode for reinforcements. The next day at nightfall the pursuing group overtook the Goths who were by this time heavily reinforced by the well armed and supplied Bulgarians who were their real employers.

The Team members with Polymethius led a well-executed night-time raid and escaped with three of the hostages including the girl they were supposed to be protecting. But pursuit was immediate and the team fell into an almost immediate ambush as the Goths and the Bulgars had been expecting a rescue attempt. Badly outnumbered and realizing that his small team could not escape cleanly with the hostages Polymethius led the pursuit to a narrow pass and then having his horse shot out from under him he used the body of his mount as cover to tie up pursuit. When the Bulgars began to fire steady streams of missiles over the dead horse and through the pass at the fleeing party and former hostages Polymethius jumped over his horse and attacked by rushing straight at the enemy with spear and Spatha. They shot him several times as he charged and then surrounded him, hacking him to pieces with axes and swords as he did all he could to fight a valiant but doomed delaying rearguard action.

Then they pursued the other party members who rode as hard as possible for the rest of the night and because they were difficult to track in the dark just made it to a Byzantine Garrison outpost at dawn and with help were able to defend it for another day until a Theme Army force arrived to relieve them.

The body of Polymethius was never recovered and the Bulgars took his head as a trophy, eventually coating it in bronze and using it to decorate their court. But Polymethius was built a special tomb and given a commemoration mass and one week time of mourning by the monastery of Studios who also added him to their liturgy, and the Emperor proclaimed him a national hero and excused his family from all taxes for three generations for his bravery in duty. The party still considers him one of their greatest heroes.

Occasionally a player in the game will still say about what somebody else does, "As brave as Polymethius."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I was playing a 1Ed PC named Bear, a Fighter with maxed out physical stats and 6's for everything else. He was basically a gentle giant of sorts (until someone made him angry or one of his buddies needed help). He was in thrall to the party's thief who had rescued him from a city orphanage.

That thief used his control of Bear to get away with causing all kinds of trouble. Eventually, he stole something he really shouldn't have, and the entire City Watch was called out to chase him down. The party ran, but as they headed for one of the city's outbound bridges, they realized the Watch was closing in. They weren't going to make it- the party was going to be in archery range by the time the Watch crossed the bridge, and would be run down by the their faster horses after that.

The thief was frantic, and started to scream "Somebody do something!" and the like as the party started crossing the bridge.

Bear stopped. He turned, drew his 2 handed sword, and faced the Watch. As the party ran, Bear held the bridge- only 2 Watchmen could get to him at one time, and he was "in the zone." I was rolling 17s+ for each attack roll- Watchmen were falling left and right.

The party made the crest of a hill nearby and got away, but looked back just long enough to see Bear finally be struck down and fall into the water.

Wanted posters went up for the thief, "Dead or Alive, 15,000 Platinum."

Shortly thereafter (2 months in campaign, 2 sessions game time), the thief's body was found, hanging upside down from a tree near the bridge where Bear met his end, along with a note saying the bounty should be given to Bear's old orphanage in his name.

The orphanage got its money & was completely rebuilt and renamed Bear's Hall. It eventually became a notable academy in the campaign, and its namesake's story was remembered with a small silver plaque, polished daily by an honor guard (elected by fellow students).

(The coolest thing about this in retrospect was that there were no hard feelings about this- all of the actions were in character, and even the thief's player thought the outcome was cool.)

 

[Jack7]

That was a good character death Dan, and a good way to honor that death.

I like it when good and heroic deaths are honored in some way.

I also cotton to the name "Bear." My nephew is called Bear because he is bear-like too. I like appropriate nick-names.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The whole sequence was pretty stunning to me- I was "in the zone" roleplaying Bear, just as the thief's player was into manipulating him. But for the most part, the other players were hack-'n'-slashing their way through the campaign.

The killing of the thief and the donation of the reward happened in a span of time while I was actually out of town and the campaign progressed without me. The claiming and donation of the reward was entirely the idea of the other players! The DM didn't even reveal what he did with Bear's Hall until a year down the road when he reused the same campaign setting with a higher-level party in a later era in the campaign (by that time, there was only one other player besides me and the DM in the group who was a part of that first group).

Bear's death, followed by the thief's and the rest was one of the few times the whole group actually role played everything- even the DM had been favoring a bare-bones playstyle up to that point.

It didn't continue, but MAN will I remember it as one of my personal high-points in gaming (for all involved).

 

[Jack7]

The killing of the thief and the donation of the reward happened in a span of time while I was actually out of town and the campaign progressed without me. The claiming and donation of the reward was entirely the idea of the other players! The DM didn't even reveal what he did with Bear's Hall until a year down the road when he reused the same campaign setting with a higher-level party in a later era in the campaign (by that time, there was only one other player besides me and the DM in the group who was a part of that first group).

That's what Heroism causes. Long memories and noble actions.

 

[Ydars]

My daughter's first character met her end in noblest fashion. Let me sing to you of the Death of Hayowen of Crendon, and may her deeds inspire you to seek battle and never to lay down till your last breath.

The scene; a wooden fort crowns a snow strewn hill and guards an ancient canyon through the hills. It is the last defence of the settled lands against the Kothic tribal hordes, who have surrounded the fort.

Night falls and the Koths wheel out their dreadful seige engines and begin attacking the fort. The PCs foolishly get distracted and scattered across the battlefield trying to contain a dozen threats. Only two remain on the walls of said fort.

The walls are breached and the Koths begin racing up the hill, ready to slay all those within; mostly women and children. The PCs outside also clamber up the hill behind the Kothic horde.

The Koths crest the hill, ready to plunge into the gap. But one lone figure stands in the breach; Hayowen of Crendon, wielder of the Black Bow of Ishilnur.

On the Koths come but then the Black Bow begins its relentless death song and feathered shafts sprout from eyes and throats quicker than the eye can follow. A circle of dead Koths now encircles the breach but a thousand times that number stlll come on and Hayowen has no more arrows.

The defenders on the wall call for Hayowen to join them, but she turns and catches the sound of a crying babe back in the inner ward. Without a word she draws her sword and stands fast, shouting at the Koths and asking which of them shall be her honor guard in death.

Blades ring and Koths fall, harvested like wheat, so that 20 or so lay dead at Hayowen's feet, though her armour is rent in many places and she is crimson from head to foot.

Then comes a Kothic champion wielding a mighty axe. He charges and suddenly the sound of blades ends cruelly.

The other PCs dash to the top of the hill, cutting their way through the enemy. But when they reach the top they find that all the Koths are kneeling.

For Hayowen of Crendon is dead, propped upright against the wall by the Champion she has slain, but dead nonetheless. Yet a strange light plays around her head; for it is the Hero Light, a fabled sign of the favour of the Gods gifted only to Heroes at their death.

The Koths spend an hour in reverent prayer before they drift off into the night, never to attack again, abandoning their seige engines where they lay.

Hayowen of Crendon was buried in that valley in a great mound, as was the ancient custom for Great Chieftains. Across her breast was laid the Black Bow and with her passing ended an age of heroes, the like of which was never seen again.

Fidar Hayowen Onnenu!

 

[jdrakeh]

In the first AD&D 1e campaign that I played in, one party member was a high level LE Cleric/Assassin who was always plotting and scheming to resurrect his dark god but, ultimately, ended up being the individual who kept everybody else in line. Socially speaking, he was the refined member of our party. I recall one incident typical of this character quite well. . .

After a week of our party behaving like uncivilized hooligans and running afoul of much trouble in a certain city, I recall this individual arranging for the kidnapping and torture of some other PCs to "teach them a lesson about manners" — but what made it so clever was that, as both a character and as a player, he had almost completely hidden his involvement.

Basically, we were all drugged while camping and, when the party (including the Cleric/Assassin) awoke, we found ourselves strapped to alters in a wooded grove being threatened with physical torture by a pair of nasty brutes who demanded that we beg forgiveness for offending their unnamed Lord and offer our service to him.

Well, everybody was considering their offer, except for the proud (and, often, ill-mannered) Paladin. Who said as much. With curse words. So they smashed his skull like a ripe tomato. Everybody else, of course, gladly swore fealty to this unknown Lord and promised to come to his aid if summoned. Each of us was given a ring with his personal sigil on it.

Nobody knew what had transpired until far later in the campaign (actual years worth of play later, IIRC) when we arrived at the Cleric/Assassin's monastery. . . and the animated corpse of the long forgotten murdered Paladin was performing menial labor in the entryway

So, anyhow, this guy was that kind of evil. I don't think he ever did anything that could be perceived as "heroic" if he didn't first ascertain that it benefited the Dark Forces of X (I forget who his worshiped deity was). Until the day that he died. It actually came as quite a shock to everybody else playing.

We had been collecting these 'keys' to an extra dimensional prison for about a year of actual play without realizing that they didn't work like traditional mechanical keys but, instead, created a pathway between the holder and an ancient, chaotic, evil that lets said evil inhabit the body of the key holder. The evil Cleric/Assassin makes the connection (somewhat serendipitously) while wrestling with an Astral Deva as part of his ongoing bid to resurrect his own dark deity.

Apparently, this god of Chaos is not only aligned directly against the Cleric/Assassin's own dark god but is also out to destroy the whole of creation and has the power to make good on that threat. The Cleric/Assassin immediately realizes what is at stake and runs off to warn the rest of the party about what is happening.

The key holder (possessed by Chaotic Evil), meanwhile, has already convinced the party (save for the Thief, my character, who is off running down some ale and whores) that the Cleric/Assassin is trying to subvert the keys for his own evil ends in a bid to resurrect his dark god. So. . . the rest of the party, knowing that the Cleric/Assassin has been off wrestling with near godlike beings, assumes that he is surely weakened and decides to attack him in broad daylight.

All Hell breaks loose in the town square when the deceived party members attempt to murder the Cleric/Assassin as he arrives on the scene, who in turn, opens up with both barrels all the while yelling about the keys and the coming of Y (I forget who the big, evil god was) like some manic street preacher. Knowing what is at stake, he refuses to turn and run, instead putting his life on the line in a vain attempt to stop the key holder.

My character arrived just in time to witness all of this unfold (I chose to remain hidden).

After all my years of gaming, this is still one of the most heroic deaths that I've seen in play. This may be because trying to save anybody was so out of the norm for this particular character but, whatever the reason, it has certainly stuck with me for years. Sadly, this heroic sacrifice was cheapened by the fact that death in D&D is rarely (if ever) permanent, and I was able to have the Cleric/Assassin raised shortly thereafter.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Sadly, this heroic sacrifice was cheapened by the fact that death in D&D is rarely (if ever) permanent, and I was able to have the Cleric/Assassin raised shortly thereafter.

Which, of course, leads to quotes like someone said their kid came up with, "I've been killed by worse!"

 

[Jack7]

Let me sing to you of the Death of Hayowen of Crendon, and may her deeds inspire you to seek battle and never to lay down till your last breath.

A poetically and well rendered tale of heroic death. I also like the fact that it had an effect on the enemy, and not just on the allies..

Sadly, this heroic sacrifice was cheapened by the fact that death in D&D is rarely (if ever) permanent

D&D and comic books. Ain't it the truth.

 

[Ydars]

Hi Jack!

I think no player minds their character dying if their death means something. The trick is to be ready to run with their death and make it special and heroic. This is easy to do when it is a decision by the player that leads to the black gates. It is not so easy when it is just some pesky dice-roll..

I have often toyed with mechanics that allow a player to make a last heroic stand after the dice say they are dead; say 1-2 rounds of extra action as they somehow summon up their last reserves to save their comrades. I like death to mean something, like it does in the old tales. Afterall, we tell stories to make sense of the world and sometimes our games reflect reality a little too much and the world of the story not enough.

I also think heroic death discourages resurrection, which I confess I hate. I have never resurrected a character yet when I have played.

In Hayowen's case it was not an option as this was a heavily house-ruled game of Palladium, but in this case I would not have allowed it anyway.

You should have seen the dice rolls that night; she criticalled 3-4 times in about 20 rolls of the d20.