Scary moments in your campaign?

[Thump]

So, the party I'm in has six people, two animal companions, one of which is mine. We're all 9th level at this point, playing Pathfinder with a few house rules.

Our wizard tries to teleport us off an island, at which point the DM tells him to make a Spellcraft check.

He succeeded, but not in a good way.

Instead of teleporting US to where we wanted to go, there was a contingency spell by the Illithids that lived underground that if someone tried to teleport out, it counterspelled, and then summoned a jabberwock.

Yes, a jabberwock. (This)http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/dragons/jabberwock

It then proceeded to almost kill our paladin and bard/warblade, at which point they ran like hell to put the fire out from it's laser eye beams.

Everyone else ran to the water, realizing that we might be able to teleport out if we weren't on the water.

I tried to stall the jabberwock, by casting Summon Nature's Ally V and summoning a cyclops, which then proceeded to rush the thing and use it's natural 20 1/day thing.

THEN... the jabberwock used it's Burble ability, dropping me to 5 HP, from 94.

Our friendly neighbourhood sorcerer then decided that I shouldn't die, and teleported me to the water, and then used a house-ruled version of Gate, and got us out.



Any scary moments in your campaigns?

[Kol Korran]

There was one worrying moment as a DM in a campaign i ran.
the party were level 11, and for plot reasons have entered a strange dungeon in the Mournland (Eberron's land of weird stuff).

teleportaion magic won't work, and healing was wanky. at the end of this place they met my first seriously-entirely-homebrewed creation- a collosal constructs made out of fused suffering warforged, powered by cords who got magic from the walls. i used a gorilla like transformer as it's mini.

the party started bad against it- it could repair, it had about 4 massive attacks, a bunch of resistances and the like and some SLAs. they were pummling it, but it repaired some of the damage.

however, in order to do so they were using their action points, a lot of them. and the guardian had more surprises. it managed to kill the wizard (who was returned by revivify) but the party was running out of spells, options, and action points.

2 of the 4 party members were one hit from becoming squished and dead, the other 2 not far off.

i was sure i overdid it, that my homebrew monster was going to do a TPK, and since this was the one before last adventure of the campaign, this would probably mean the end of the campaign in a very, very unsatisfying way.

but as the going gets tough...

the cleric flew under the monstrosity and tried to attack it's power core (the maddned artificer that built it) and made it kneel, when some used this to CLIMB the beast and pummled it with some fast spells and mighty blows.

this close, but it was SUCH a worthy victory, it indeed felt awesome.

it was only topped by the end of the campaign battle, but that's another story alltogether.

[Dr.Epic]

Cleric runs out of spells and you're fighting a troll.

[SamBurke]

That Jabberwocky is flipping amazing. I want to use it...

[limejuicepowder]

Similar to Kol's story, I nearly caused a TPK with a boss battle.

The party was 3 level 5 characters, plus a level 5 NPC. They had stalked the BBEG back to his hideout; the battle took place in the villain's laboratory (the villain is a level 7 artificer). The villain has also hired the mercenary Vabon VanCleef, a level 6 knight/crusader who uses a spiked chain.

The room itself is about 100ft long and 40 ft wide; the left side has tables running the length of the room holding all of the BBEG's alchemists equipment.

BBEG begins the battle by casting enlarge person on Vabon - notice how I made the room 40 ft wide? Vabon stands in the middle and no one can get past. The artificer is on a raised platform behind him, ready with is wands to create all sorts of problems.

My original plan for this battle was for the PC's to use the potions on the tables; there are a variety of brews that burn with acid, explode in fire, or create a smokescreen. I even laid a hint for them: when Vabon twirled his chain in threatening, I'm-ready-to-throw-down-sort-of-way, he knocked a potion to ground and it burned right in to the stone floor.

The problem? The setting: all of my players are Norse warriors, and couldn't conceive of anything except direct melee carnage (even the cleric went charging straight in). 3 rounds later, the party is nearly dead and the merc hasn't even been hurt yet. I though they were goners for sure.

But then luck strikes! The cleric makes a fresh attempt to close the distance, and the merc goes for the trip attack. He fails. The cleric then counter-trips and yanks Vabon right off his feet size 25 feet. The players pile on, and the merc doesn't even get another turn (poor dude). The artificer flees and there was much rejoicing.

[rollforeigninit]

Best moment ever was back in 2nd ed. when the 4 PC's were crit on by 4 Skeletons in round 1 of combat. Insta-TPK on the 1st actual initiative roll. My party invented the save vs DM mechanic then. Scary moment for DM's everywhere when the PC's unionize!:smalleek: