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View Full Version : Gamer Tales Mind-Blowing Reveals! Twists and Genuine surprise (or dull surprise if you prefer)



Flail_master
2014-03-20, 05:37 AM
Hey there Playground!

Another thread to share stories I know, but I wanted to gear one particularly to fantastic reveals or twists you've seen in your various games! player or DM/GM!

I've found seeing secrets people keep about their characters for reveals like this can help give ideas for other characters, which is why I love this kind of thing!

So please share :smallbiggrin: What crazy revelations about characters and villains have made you fall off your chair and gasp in shock?



I'll start us off! spoilered for length

I was temporarily joining a long standing session with two of my friends, they were about level 15-17, both a warlock and a sorceror, both incredibly evil and fighting for power between each other. They pretty much killed anyone who was a threat and got in their way.
I had to make a character of the same level who somehow would be both useful and non-threatening at the same time.
I ended up making a sorceror/alienist (it IS possible, if u dispute it, DM allowed it so shush :smalltongue:) who was completely insane and focused around summoning. SO insane that I wasn't a threat because I had no agenda aside from "I wanna speak with Cthulhu". Oh yeah, and no one knew this! :smallbiggrin:

So in my introduction, I found myself imprisoned on the ship which they were the captain of, and they suddenly became engrossed in a sea battle with a ship full of paladins and clerics who were obsessed with cleansing the world of evil, and they were next. SOooo I used blink to escape my prison cell, and proceeded onto the deck, where I saw the Warlock ordering the crew around trying to keep the opposing ship at bay, it was chaos.

He spots me and asks why the hell I'm not in my cell, and I tell him, as lucidly as I can with 6 WIS, that I can help since I'm a summoner.

NOW I WILL EMPHASISE, I hadn't told ANYONE what character I had made. all they knew was that I was a spell-caster.

Upon hearing that I'm a summoner (and after some convincing not to kill the escaped prisoner.) He says:

"OK! Fine, summon me your best creature and then get back to your cell!"

"Okey Dokey"

I proceed to summon a PAIR of Psuedonatural templated ELASMOSAURS in the water. But I dont say it that plainly, I instead describe these shadows suddenly rising from the deeps, blood and puss tainting the water from open sores and boils of these vaguely shaped horrible tentacled masses with teeth sprouting from every angle and their body splitting in two to create a crude gaping mouth.

At my description, all I received was a stunned silence. No one was sure what to say, until my friend playing the warlock picked up a pencil and a small piece of paper, in the silence he very purposely wrote onto it, folded it, then handed it to me. All it said was:

"wut?"

It's probably the best reaction I have ever seen to one of my characters and I loved it :smallamused: :smallbiggrin:

The elasmosaur proceeded to dragging the opposing ships to the depths of the ocean :smallbiggrin:

DigoDragon
2014-03-20, 08:12 AM
Some of my fav reveals because the PCs were truely stunned:

Shadowrun- one of the PCs was a retired military man who was looking for his long lost daughter. Hadn't seen her in 15-16 years. Halfway through the campaign he learned that the Johnson who the party was working under for several missions was in fact his daughter. Awkward because one of the other PCs was hitting on her for a date earlier that same session. XD

D&D- There was a campaign with two evil bads-- A wizard that was building a device to summon devils from hell to do his bidding, and a red dragon that was trying to overthrow the government of a local kingdom. The party has been chasing them around for months until they made a good plan to catch them both within the same area. They only managed to thwart the dragon and left her mortally wounded to die in the dungeon. Then they found the twist: Turns out that the wizard was the forgotten brother of the party Monk and the big red dragon the PCs nearly killed was trying to STOP the wizard from succeeding by overthrowing the corrupt government that was funding him. So now the PCs had to race back into the dungeon to save the dragon and then go overthrow the government themselves before the wizard got the last payment for that summoning machine! XD

The_Werebear
2014-03-20, 09:49 AM
In a campaign I was in, my paladin found a Sentient +1 Holy Bow in a desert just before a major battle against a rampaging army of undead. Since we were fighting to protect an ancient temple of a Sun god, it was chalked up by me to good divine fortune (especially since we'd received deific boons and protection before, abiet in more minor ways). The rest of the party was more suspicious, especially when they learned that it could draw from my life force to produce more powerful shots. However, when checked over by two holy priests and an allied devil cultist (long story short, the devil cultists had just as much to lose if the temple fell to the undead, and sent a few necromancers to help. I filed them under "trying to redeem") nothing was found to be wrong with it.

So, we defeat the undead in a vicious battle, and chase them back to the temple of the Darkness god they were serving. We clear out their temple, and get to the altar from which the Dark god was channeling his power and influence. The rest of the party was content to lock it up, but I, knowing the bow could channel from me, asked it if it could destroy it. It said it could, if the sacrifice was big enough. I offered anything up to my life. It agreed, then took my soul and shot a bolt of Hellfire (Mephistopholes Brand) into the altar, utterly obliterating it. It then revealed itself as a fiend of possession, thanked me for my contribution, and abandoned the bow.

The DM had intended to have it slowly attempt to corrupt me into harsher and more violent actions, but seeing the opportunity, it took my soul flat out and ran rather than wait for me to fall of my own accord.

NaturalFumbler
2014-03-20, 03:35 PM
Just joined up so I could share a few of these.

Around the table I've got a reputation for terrible luck with dice, which usually leads me to attempting some harebrained scheme to get out of what ever situation I've gotten myself in, or failing that, a memorable death.

So I'm in a game playing a somewhat nerfed Elven Druid, DM didn't want a spellcaster, so I had gone and dropped wisdom to a bare minimum, and used the shapeshifer variant, playing him more like a ranger with utility animal forms, and notably a barely functional spell slinger.

Due to some rather bad planning, and worse dice during an attempted rescue, I had found myself imprisoned in a Barter Town-esque place on the Edge of civilization, who's locals had an entertaining way of dealing with prisoners.

The locals salvaged a lot of magitek from the ruins of a forerunner civilization nearby, and since they didn't know what anything DID, they liked to strap a prisoner down and force him to use it on another prisoner, and see what happens. They made a great big show of it having folks watch and place bets. All in all a rather messy process.

My Party mates were outside the thunderdome style cage I was trapped in, with a pile of guards and bloodthirsty locals between us, and no plan. They were watching in horror at what was going to happen to me.

Strapped to a frame, with threats of being shot if he shapeshift or doing anything funny the druid is forced to point a ray gun looking weapon at a prisoner, but refuses to pull the trigger, and drops the weapon. The locals laugh, and they take the ray gun, and blast the other prisoner with it to chunky bits.

They admire the results of this 'lighting gun' and put the weapon back on the pile with all the other unknown dohickes and their magitek "lighting jar" batteries sitting next to the druid. They go to fetch another prisoner for a target.

Ok...Druid is officially angry now.

Problem is, what can I do about it, the frame has me force to face only one way, I couldn't turn the weapons in any other direction, and couldn't shapeshift and get away due to cage and bad guy numbers. My allies are outside the cage, I can see them, and KNOW they've got no way to help.

A Thought Occurs.

I ask the DM if I'm still able to spellcast the way I'm tied down.

The others wonder what I'm up to, they know I've got nothing but the basics when it comes to magic, just utility stuff.

The DM states that I have not displayed any such skills since arriving in the town says "Sure you can cast, what do you want to do?"

"Create Water.... Over the Table of Magitek Gear"

Silence from the players.....the DM is rapidly trying to figure out exactly what happens when a PILE of Centuries old semi functional battery operated magitek death machines suddenly gets smashed together and completely drenched...

BOOM

....The ensuing explosion Vaporized my character. And wiped out the weapons...and the entire cage pit.... and a better part of the evil guards and townsfolk watching.

It did a number on the PC's too, but they lived, and had a great opening now to go save the plot critical prisoners, since well...anyone that would try to stop them were chunky salsa, or trying to steal anything not bolted down in the resulting chaos.



#2 happend just the other night

Playing a Artificer tailored after the TF2 Engineer, he's survived pretty well for a while now as a support character, leaving the real combat to his Crossbow Sentries and other creations. He'd built up from scratch his own smithy in the Parties Paladin-ish Knight's ruled village.

Generally been playing the character as a goofy but effective "DON'T CALL ME A WIZARD" magic dispenser and for hire problem solver with a strong sense of enlightened self interest. The town, and Party are on a war footing and are expecting the BBEG and an Undead Army to strike at any time. The militia has been formed the town defenses set, including some bodged together anti magic tech from yours truly if and when someone tried to pull off the "City Nuke" trick that the group has seen used in the setting. It was that kind of game, and paranoia was running high.

Then we get some visiting merchants, one of them, for no obvious reason, was claiming to be the BBEG!!! He obviously wasn't, wrong race for one. But we'd been dealing with some Serious Mental Weirdness and downright creepy stuff, and guys like this could have been any number of Bad Juju waiting to happen. So we Pop some of the Anti magic on him and bundle him off to a impromptu cell.

Even with the anti magic he still claimed to be the BBEG. So either

A) his mind control mojo is a heck of a lot stronger then our ability to deal with
B) the guy here's been so thoroughly brainwashed that we can't snap him out of it
C) He REALLY IS the BBEG walking up to us and asking a fair trial as part of some plot. If sp, he's got the biggest brass ones ever, and the power to take us out no problem if we give an inch.

Debate rages over what to do with the guy, can't fix him, can't release him, certainly can't trust him.

While the rest of the PC's are off dealing with a patrol that had been wiped out, and the oh so not natural fog creeping in around the town, the Artificer is left making attempt after magical attempt to figure out what is up with this guy. One such attempt is a circle of protection against evil, but it still failed to cut off the prisoner from what ever vodo was making him make these claims. He's also asking questions, no torture or anything, just a relatively nice conversation, considering everything. There are weird gaps in what the guy knows, odd hesitations, all kinds of hints that stuff is just not right with him.

With time running out on things outside the cell, the Artificer and exhausted the last of what he could do on short notice to try and figure out what was with the prisoner, but there were no solid answers, just the possibilities.

So, Dropping the goofy accent, the artificer explains in simple terms to the shackled figure that, while he cannot determine the truth of the mans claims, he cannot disprove them either, and considering the crimes of the villain and limited resources and time left, states that to eliminate the possible risk he represents, That the artificer is going to kill him. The artificer considers the circle against evil he himself had placed around the prisoner, and notably takes several steps back.

The players are now gibbering OOC, but the other PC's are a couple miles out looking for the patrol, the cell door is locked with a do not disturb the zany artificer at work style sign. There is no one there to stop me. The artificer then instructs his Sentries to shoot the man until they run out of ammo.

The the Prisoner is startled a bit by the claim, but then smoothly states that as his last request, if he should be judged, it should be by the Knight.

The Artificer stops to consider this. Then shakes his head.

Paraphasing the TF2 engineer

"look, buddy. I'm an artficer. That means I solve problems. Not problems like, "Judgement", because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems."

Then goes on to say that to save the knights reputation, this is going to be the acts of a known 'mad man'. He makes the call. The Sentries proceed to empty their quivers into the bound figure, it isn't pretty.

The Players are shocked. The PC's are for other reason returning to the village, with enemy forces tailing them.

The artificer however, isn't done. He then proceeds to, systematically and with the rising horror of the Players, butcher the body and throw it, piece by piece, into a malfunctioning Bag of Holding he's been carrying around for disposal. By the time he's just finishing up, an NPC barges in with warnings of the enemy, and is stunned by the bloody mess. The artificer, in a state of shock over what he's done, numbly goes to work, going to 'solve another problem' with the oncoming enemies.

Long story short, turns out the man was an innocent, brainwashed and semi magically controlled into trying to force the Good Knight to slay him out of turn, to besmirch his honor and have his Paladin powers removed. And the Artficer took the moral bullet for him AND, as the figure was contained at the time, the only thing the enemy knew was that he'd been killed, but not by whom....they assumed it was the Knight that did it.

Red Fel
2014-03-21, 08:18 AM
This was the old edition of Jadeclaw, and it was actually my first game, a one-shot come-on-try-out-the-system campaign. I was playing a scribe - which, in a primarily illiterate society, is actually a very valuable commodity. My character was a coward, a conniving rat (literally and figuratively). So in the combat scenes (which were few, because Jadeclaw) he hid in the back and let the bloodthirsty peasants take care of business. When we got to town, he was able to make money for the party by selling his calligraphic services to the local government officials, who needed scribes to write their reports and edicts.

Oh, and he was also a member of a super-secret network of spies in service to the Imperial Court, which meant that basically once per chapter (which meant once total, because this was a one-shot) I could basically flash a signet and outrank everybody.

Imagine the players' surprise when the cowardly little rat turns to the town officials, flashes a signet ring he has kept hidden from everybody (including the other players), and announces, "Pursuant to the authority of the august personage of His Majesty, the Emperor of the Middle Kingdom, in accordance with the ordinances and laws, I order you to escort me and my allies." And gets results.

Collective silence at the table. Mission accomplished. Best part? My character never had to explain himself. "What was that?" "Something of which you will not speak for as long as you live."

TheEmerged
2014-03-21, 08:27 AM
The system is Alternity - that one T$R came out with between 2nd & 3rd Editions that was mostly used for SciFi. This campaign turned out to be the second-longest running one our gaming group has done. The PC's were a small "franchise" of a mercenary corporation with a special security clearance to enter The Forbidden Sector a year before it is opened to the galactic society at large. There are a large number of races here that have just gained interplanetary travel. The PC's are there to set up trade opportunities\agreements, root out pirates that are believed to be operating there, and so forth.

It isn't long however before they realize these races are the stereotypical fantasy races - orcs, goblins, kobolds, elves, dwarves, amazons, and so forth. And that these races know each other because they used to all live on the same planet.

About seven sessions in, the players finally realized this wasn't just *any* fantasy world... this was a campaign we had started but never finished. The apocalypse the players were working to stop had happened, with some survivors escaping to "other planes" and instead ending up on other planets.

I have to confess I had some fun turning fantasy tropes on their head in that campaign.

supermonkeyjoe
2014-04-01, 10:46 AM
We got to around level 16 in a campaign only to find out the guy we had been working for all along was actually the villain we were trying to thwart! And then when we found him and killed him it turned out the main villain was dead all along and merely possessing our employer (who was actually a genuinely nice guy)

Boy did we feel bad about that one. Well done by the DM though as we were being antagonized by one of the BBEGs underlings for most of the campaign so didn't even start worrying about him until late in the campaign.

RedMage125
2014-04-02, 11:53 AM
He's my OP from another thread in the 4e forum:

So...my 4e game is about to come to an interesting point, and I just thought I'd fish for some ideas that otherwise may not have occured to me.

Here's the situation:
The players are about to travel to a continent of Dragonborn, ruled over by dragons (place has a kind of Oriental Adventures theme, with true dragons as daimyos over dragonborn samurai, nobles, and commoners), called The Drakkensrad. They are searching for the blade of a legendary paladin, which involves breaking into his tomb and retrieving the pieces.

The legend of this paladin: Legend speaks of a famous knight of Bahamut, whose name has been lost to history. He is known now only as The Platinum Champion. It was said that he was marked with the favor of Bahamut his whole life, and was a mighty Paladin and Platinum Knight. In the legend, he had a brother, also a knight, whose name is also no longer remembered. Over time, the Champion's deeds garnered much fame, and jealousy grew in his borther's heart. Jealousy grew, and deepened, and turned to hate. The Champion's brother fell to the influence of Falazure, the Night Dragon, and became a Death Knight. He is known now to history only as The Bone Knight, and after his treason was discovered, his name was stricken from all records (hence why his name is unknown). The Bone Knight raised a great army of undead to assault the city of Mount Argent, the center of Bahamut's faith in Drakkensari lands. The Platinum Champion met his former brother in combat during the battle, and so fierce was their conflict, that all other combatants gave them a wide berth. As the sun set and darkness crept in, the Bone Knight's power grew. Just before the sun set completely behind the horizon, the Bone Knight struck a massive blow. But the Champion intercepted this blow, and there was a great explosion of radiant and necrotic energy. When it was gone, only the Champion's blade, broken clean in two, remained. Bereft of their general, the undead army faltered, and was wiped out by the remaining paladins. Even with no body to bury, the knights created a grand tomb to honor his memory, and his blade was placed in his sarcophagus. The blade itself was reputed to be a divine gift from Bahamut. A righteous weapon to combat Evil.
The party hears this tale from an NPC Paladin of Bahamut in human lands. The party has helped him, and taken quests from him a few times already. He is very popular in his home city, and is gradually intorducing new means of protecting the people. He is very zealous in his quest to protect his people from evil. He has recieved a visitation from an angel of Bahamut, who has told him that if he could recover this blade, it could be reforged, and it would be a great symbol of the favor of Bahamut upon him, strengthening the faith of Bahamut in his city, bringing in new converts to the faith, and creating a new Platinum Age of enlightenment and Good.
The kicker: The blade in the tomb is not that of the Platinum Champion, but rather, the broken rune weapon of the Bone Knight, who was banished to the Shadowfell in the explosion. The Bone Knight has sought the recovery of his sword, but has been unable to penetrate the tomb to recover it, as he is nearly powerless without it. When the party is in the Drakkensrad, they will find an old and decrepit dragonborn scholar who helps them to find the tomb, in exchange for the chance to study the blade. The scholar is, of course, the Bone Knight, who can restore his weapon with a touch, thus restoring him to full power.

And the twist: The "angel" that has visited the Paladin is a disguised succubus. His control over the city gradually grows more and more overt, and creates a new order in the city. In an effort to "protect" people from sin, he begins a very harsh and strict regime, eventually becoming an oppressive dictator, all in the name of "good". The succubus serves the Evil god of Tyranny, Rulership and Fear in my world (named Bridenal), and seeks to turn him into a harsh tyrant. I expect a pretty sweet battle once the party discovers this. All part of my master plan to devise a Lawful Good antagonist.

By the way, the real twist to the whole story: Despite the fact that the Platinum Champion is always depicted in murals as a dragonborn, he was not. He was a Deva. The Drakensari people recognized him for what he was, a chosen herald of Bahamut. His "brother" was obviously not a blood relation, but they were as close as brothers. He died in the explosion that shattered the Bone Knight's sword, and started a new incarnation somewhere else, leaving no body behind. His sword was swept into the shadowfell with the Bone Knight, and I plan (later in Paragon tier) for the party to eventually recover the true blade. The sword will be one of the kinds of weapons that can also function as a holy symbol (crusaders weapon or the like). The party cleric is a Deva Cleric of Bahamut (Wis/Cha, uses holy symbols). When he touches it, memories of his past life come flooding back to him, and he finally realizes that HE was the Platinum Champion in a former life.
Dun...Dun...DUUUUUUUUNNNN!!

Raine_Sage
2014-04-02, 05:27 PM
I haven't run this yet but I'm definitely planning on it at some point in the future. The PCs will be a group of dragon slayers, sort of like the ghost busters they're the ones you call when you have a dragon problem since they're very good at what they do.

One day, after slaying a black dragon they've been tailing for months, they receive a note from the Duke of a nearby Demense who would like to enlist their help in taking down an Ancient Black dragon who they find out secretly rules the neighboring kingdom and has had his cult covertly extending tendrils of influence into the land in the hopes of paving the way for for a total take over and subsequent corruption of the land as he turns the united kingdoms into a necromancer's wet dream.

The PCs will use the Duke's Demense as a base of operations, living in moderate luxury in between quashing the influence of the black dragon and working to expose him to the rest of the country so they can slay him without starting a long and bloody war over it (just waltzing in to a neighboring kingdom and insisting their king is a dragon's puppet doesn't usually go over well).

However the twist is that the Duke they're working for is a "puppet" himself belonging to a Blue dragon who has been trying to eliminate her rival for centuries now and the PCs are one in a long list of schemes. The "duke's" sons/daughters are actually the dragon's children their to keep an eye on the PCs and the puppet Duke.

If the PCs are sufficiently impressive in clearing out the black dragon the Blue might reveal themselves and offer a more direct relationship potentially to keep the PCs from turning on it if/when they find out the truth. Likewise if the PCs are being disappointing their patron might begin attempting to get rid of them, sending them on more and more lethal quests until they start wondering what exactly is going on (maybe an ambush by the dragon's children).

RedMage125
2014-04-03, 11:17 AM
One I was going to run in 3.5 came to mind...

The PCs get hired to eliminate the "great white dragon of the north". And they've all heard legends of the 'great white dragon", and when it comes out and starts terrorizing a far northern town, they run to the town, all prepared with fire spells and fire-based abilities...

...only to find out, it's not a white dragon...

...it's a Red Dragon, with the Wight template applied (so it's actually immune to fire).

It's the Great Wight Dragon of the North.

lytokk
2014-04-03, 11:39 AM
Well, couple things that have recently happened, and yet to come.

First twist was the PC tryign to escape from some giant shadow ceature while the party tried to rescue her, and it turns out the PC was actually asleep the whole time on her first night of being a lycanthrope, having no control over what she did. When she found out what was going on she was bouncing and giddy with excitement.

Same party, different character. Half Elf Sorceress who never knew her mom and was raised by her dad. Back when they were in a forest populated by fey, a nymph took a strong interest in her, and she thought the nymph was hitting on her. At the end of the lycanthrope session, she gets a letter handed to her from the nymph that another party member had been carrying. Had the whole thing written out too, starting out with what a lovely woman she is, later going into detail about how the nymph met her father. The player loved the twist on her backstory and hasn't told the rest of the party yet. Can't wait to see the reaction when they do, considering every male player in the game was hitting on the nymph.

And then there's the twists yet to come.

Right now the party is tracking a group of Ogres through some cursed lands. The Ogre leader has an amulet which transforms any corpse into an undead just by being within a few miles of it. Also, the party has figured out the Ogre leader is mind controlling the rest of the Ogres somehow. So the party is looking to destroy it. What they don't know is that the power fueling the amulet is actually a trapped succubus. When they destroy the amulet, they'll let loose the succubus, who's going to find every other item the amulets crafter made and free the demons in them as well.

Now, this part I haven't decided on yet, but, when they track the succubus down to the last item which would be in a forgotten crypt, they'll be more than powerful enough to defeat her. Unfortunately, as she's close to the item, going to have a lich pop out of a closet (or something of that nature), snap her neck, and show the party who the real BBEG of the campaign is, which is the original wizard who started binding demon souls to fuel his magic. Hopefully it'll be a much more dramatic reveal than it seems to be here.

Defiled Cross
2014-04-10, 12:31 PM
A group I used to DM for were not at all concerned with shaping and molding their characters via background information..

..so it was with much surprise that the Mad King's son and legitimate heir was none other than the bumbling buffoon of a Fighter that was my cousin's boyfriend.

Didn't take long for the seeds of suspicion to take hold.

:smallwink:

DigoDragon
2014-04-10, 01:23 PM
It's the Great Wight Dragon of the North.

Classic. :D

I've also heard of one adventure tasking the party to kill a great purple wyrm so they research how to fight what they assumed was an Amythist dragon. Nope, purple worm.

RedMage125
2014-04-10, 03:03 PM
Classic. :D

I've also heard of one adventure tasking the party to kill a great purple wyrm so they research how to fight what they assumed was an Amythist dragon. Nope, purple worm.

Really? Because one of my D&D buddies who plays with me regularly said it was pretty Evil of me.

Lol.

A whole party prepared with Fire abilities that are all now useless, and energy drain on a Claw/Claw/Bite/Wing/Wing/Tail attack combo.

TuggyNE
2014-04-11, 12:06 AM
Really? Because one of my D&D buddies who plays with me regularly said it was pretty Evil of me.

If, in DMing, there is any distinction to be made between "classic" and "evil", I have yet to hear any rumor of it.