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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sadras" data-source="post: 7546444" data-attributes="member: 6688277">In one of the numerous encounters in Chapter 3, The Savage Frontier, of Storm King’s Thunder, the PCs (5th- level) came across a band of orcs which had trapped an owlbear in a net and were busy taunting it with spear jabs. In the process they had wounded it. Needless to say the PCs intervened and with a successful surprise attack they made short work of most of the orcs with a few survivors fleeing deeper into the woods, including their leader who was an orog (tougher orc).The ranger gave chase, whilst the rest of the party attended to freeing and healing the beast as well as looting the bodies of the fallen orcs before heading back to camp. Orcs were the ranger’s favoured enemy, so not wanting to go into too much detail I quickly narrated him tracking and stealthily sneaking up and slaying the surviving orcs one by one, until he tracked the leader of the patrol, the orog.I described very much a Warcraft-styled clip of the two combatants circling and sizing each other up before lunging at one another weapons drawn. The orog won initiative and missed his first attack but his greataxe followed through with his second attack doing 14 points of damage. The elven ranger, armed with two masterwork shortswords (+1 damage each, a gift from the Goldenfields chapter) missed with both attacks. Orog’s are generally heavily armoured.Not wanting to make this all about hits and misses, in the second round I had the orog disarm the ranger with his first attack, sending one of the shortswords flying into the foliage and then rolled for his second attack which die roll resulted in a natural 20. Damage was 2d12+4. I rolled two 10’s, leaving the ranger on 2 hit points with the orog still at full health.Knowing the elf was outmatched and far away from any allies, the player decided his elf was going to make a run for it and so the elf made a tactical withdrawal, before sprinting back to camp. I had the orog give chase, taunting the elf verbally, shouting racial slurs, making playful swipes at him with his greataxe, essentially toying with him. At all times the orog was keeping pace with the elf.Now, I suppose I could have had the character killed, but I opted for another route. In the village of Nightstone, Rillix the tressym (winged cat), had befriended the ranger and had become somewhat of an animal companion to him at least for almost a month. The tressym had been left back at camp.At some part in the ranger-orog chase, the light from the camp-fire could be seen so the orog started closing the distance readying to finish off the elf and end the game. At that moment the ranger sensed something small and fast dart past him, but he did not make it out. As the orog neared his prey and lifted up his greataxe, from the corner of his eye he saw something leap up from the ground, wings outstretched, and claws. In that moment his attention turned away from the elf to this new creature which was directed at him – instinctively he turned his body and swung the greataxe at the black winged creature slicing it cleanly in two. Rillix died instantly and quietly.  By the time the orog turned his attention back to his prey, the elf was already too close to the encampment. Deciding better than facing the elf and all his allies, the orog disappeared back into the woods.Was it better that the character survived? I think so. I’m not saying killing PCs is bad, I’ve done it plenty times, including two TPKs, but in this instance it did not serve the greater story (for my table I thought). BUT in order for me to justify the PC surviving there had to be some sort of cost.The PC lost a masterwork shortsword and an animal companion, he was humiliated, gained a personal enemy and learned a valuable lesson about the deadliness of orogs. Earlier in the session I had a Troll sunder his masterwork bow. That cost was sufficient for me, maybe next time I'm not as lenient and demand a higher cost or maybe there is no next time.As DMs we face these kinds of decisions/choices often. I find that the way I might run such a scenario  very much depends on the campaign and the particular situation. I'd be curious to hear from DMs, but especially players what they think of when the PCs are, for lack of a better description, let off the hook.Do they feel cheated? relieved? Does the fiction need to make sense and/or there to be an appropriate cost? Some other requirement?</blockquote>

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