Propagandalf
2013-03-23, 04:12 PM
"A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
—Douglas Adams
As the title says, examples of the effect also known as Spanner-in-the-Works (or more accurately, PC-in-the-works).
Stories about PC's foiling a perfectly good plan in the last possible moment.
I'll start with mine.
This one is from the Pathfinder adventure path, Serpent's Skull, so anyone who hasn't played it before, prepare for some minor spoilers.
The party (lvl9):
Necromancer Cleric (Creepy Evil)
Whipmaster Fighter (Chaotic Stupid)
Dwarf Monk (Lawful Weird)
Gnome Summoner (Lawful Greedy)
So, the party had resently arrived to the Lost City, which turned out to be pretty populated with random Monstrous Humanoid tribes after all (no surprises there...). Instead of plowing through all the opposition like a meatgrinder on wheels, which we normally did, we decided to actually hop through the hoops and try to ALLY ourselves with the only human settlement in the huge city.
Turns out the tribe is under the protection of an unhinged Lillend (winged, chaotic good, celestial, snake/human hybrid) and we have to prove ourselves to her before we're permitted access to the tribe lands. The test is a DC 25 craft/perform check which, if succesful, should prove that we're artisans like the tribe who lives here under her care.
We all scrape through -Barely- (except the dwarf monk, who was meditating, since his player didn't make it to that session).
We return a few in-game days later to take care of a blood-sucking, plague-bearing monster that's been terrorising the tribe for a while now. We return with the dwarf. Who doesn't yet have the permission to stay in the area and is taken to meet the Lillend while the rest of us plan the ambush (it involved making dozens little puppets in the likeness of the cleric. One of the weirder plans we've ever had...).
At this point it should be mentioned that the dwarf monk is pretty optimised with high str and wis, and that his dump-stat is charisma (7).
Anyway, the Lillend is pretty descending towards the "ugly" dwarf but is positively surprised when the dwarf makes his superdwarven Acrobatic's check of 35 (the DM allowed him to use Acrobatics instead of Perform, but with penalties. He rolled a 19).
So, the dwarf passes with flying colors, so well infact that if he had been with us before, his performance would had allowed the rest of us to auto-pass.
What follows is the farewell conversation that leads to the Charlie Foxtrot of epic proportions. I mean really, with one WORD he managed to destroy all our efforts of alliance.
Lillend: "Hmph, I guess that even something as ugly as a dwarf can express the beauty of motion and dance. Very well, you are allowed here. Now go away, your ugliness is disturbing my sculpting."
Monk:"Thank you Snake-lady!" *turns to leave*
Other players:"...!"
DM:"..."
Lillend:"WHAT did you call me?!":smallfurious:
Other players:"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
*Lillend starts to froth in the mouth and scream messy murder*
Monk:"Okay bye!" *runs for his life*:smalleek:
You see, the Lillend had one trigger word which, if uttered, instantly terminates any possible negotiations. ONE. Which we forgot to inform the dwarf Player about, since he wasn't in the session it came up. Turns out she was batwing-insane and didn't like to be associated with snakes AT ALL, since she had been been warring with the citys Serpent-folk for the past ten millenia, ever since the citys collapse. The Lillend was so deranged that any mentions of her snake-like appearance would set her into a bloodrage, after which she murders everyone in the tribe she's currently treasuring. And this isn't her first tribe. It's her FIFTEENTH.
And this Lillend has Bard levels and is a CR13 encounter. Our party is lvl 9.
Oops.
We did win the fight, eventually, but we got some really lucky rolls and the DM got some really unlucky ones.
Not one of us saw that coming. Not the DM, and least of all the Monk's Player.
As the Fighter's Player put it: "One word! One WORD you're not allowed to say in it's presence, and you managed to end your otherwise brilliant performance with it! How is this possible?!"
What about you? Have you ever had any plans foiled by the unwitting actions of other PC's?:smallsmile:
—Douglas Adams
As the title says, examples of the effect also known as Spanner-in-the-Works (or more accurately, PC-in-the-works).
Stories about PC's foiling a perfectly good plan in the last possible moment.
I'll start with mine.
This one is from the Pathfinder adventure path, Serpent's Skull, so anyone who hasn't played it before, prepare for some minor spoilers.
The party (lvl9):
Necromancer Cleric (Creepy Evil)
Whipmaster Fighter (Chaotic Stupid)
Dwarf Monk (Lawful Weird)
Gnome Summoner (Lawful Greedy)
So, the party had resently arrived to the Lost City, which turned out to be pretty populated with random Monstrous Humanoid tribes after all (no surprises there...). Instead of plowing through all the opposition like a meatgrinder on wheels, which we normally did, we decided to actually hop through the hoops and try to ALLY ourselves with the only human settlement in the huge city.
Turns out the tribe is under the protection of an unhinged Lillend (winged, chaotic good, celestial, snake/human hybrid) and we have to prove ourselves to her before we're permitted access to the tribe lands. The test is a DC 25 craft/perform check which, if succesful, should prove that we're artisans like the tribe who lives here under her care.
We all scrape through -Barely- (except the dwarf monk, who was meditating, since his player didn't make it to that session).
We return a few in-game days later to take care of a blood-sucking, plague-bearing monster that's been terrorising the tribe for a while now. We return with the dwarf. Who doesn't yet have the permission to stay in the area and is taken to meet the Lillend while the rest of us plan the ambush (it involved making dozens little puppets in the likeness of the cleric. One of the weirder plans we've ever had...).
At this point it should be mentioned that the dwarf monk is pretty optimised with high str and wis, and that his dump-stat is charisma (7).
Anyway, the Lillend is pretty descending towards the "ugly" dwarf but is positively surprised when the dwarf makes his superdwarven Acrobatic's check of 35 (the DM allowed him to use Acrobatics instead of Perform, but with penalties. He rolled a 19).
So, the dwarf passes with flying colors, so well infact that if he had been with us before, his performance would had allowed the rest of us to auto-pass.
What follows is the farewell conversation that leads to the Charlie Foxtrot of epic proportions. I mean really, with one WORD he managed to destroy all our efforts of alliance.
Lillend: "Hmph, I guess that even something as ugly as a dwarf can express the beauty of motion and dance. Very well, you are allowed here. Now go away, your ugliness is disturbing my sculpting."
Monk:"Thank you Snake-lady!" *turns to leave*
Other players:"...!"
DM:"..."
Lillend:"WHAT did you call me?!":smallfurious:
Other players:"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
*Lillend starts to froth in the mouth and scream messy murder*
Monk:"Okay bye!" *runs for his life*:smalleek:
You see, the Lillend had one trigger word which, if uttered, instantly terminates any possible negotiations. ONE. Which we forgot to inform the dwarf Player about, since he wasn't in the session it came up. Turns out she was batwing-insane and didn't like to be associated with snakes AT ALL, since she had been been warring with the citys Serpent-folk for the past ten millenia, ever since the citys collapse. The Lillend was so deranged that any mentions of her snake-like appearance would set her into a bloodrage, after which she murders everyone in the tribe she's currently treasuring. And this isn't her first tribe. It's her FIFTEENTH.
And this Lillend has Bard levels and is a CR13 encounter. Our party is lvl 9.
Oops.
We did win the fight, eventually, but we got some really lucky rolls and the DM got some really unlucky ones.
Not one of us saw that coming. Not the DM, and least of all the Monk's Player.
As the Fighter's Player put it: "One word! One WORD you're not allowed to say in it's presence, and you managed to end your otherwise brilliant performance with it! How is this possible?!"
What about you? Have you ever had any plans foiled by the unwitting actions of other PC's?:smallsmile: