Talon Betimere
2014-07-19, 04:18 PM
So I'm sure you're wondering what this is, if you do know what the Bug on the Wall Effect is then congratz. What this is essentially is something random the DM puts in, not necessarily a bug on a wall, but something so minor that has nothing to do with the campaign just appears and all of sudden, your attention is now drawn to that thing. This could be a bird, a small animal, a mug, or of course...a bug. Your objective could be right in front of you, but this "bug" is just so much more interesting. "What the **** is that? Why is it there? I bet it's an enemy! Kill it! No it's just a bug, what if it's important?" is typically the reaction you get from the party. Enough with the description, I'm posting this for you all to share your own "Bug on the Wall" story.
For me, I have 2. The first was in a cavern, we had just beaten an orc shaman whom diseased a small mining town's water supply. We were so happy because once he was died, the disease started disappearing and we found his loot bag which contained a potion of cure disease (we were all affected by the disease). We had just one more spot to check which contained a chest that was filled with mithral ore, gold, and various other valuables (including a baseball sized sapphire that is leading my rogue into another adventure. He's been having strange dreams of an old man offering his entire estate for the sapphire). However, instead of going straight to it, our ranger made a spot roll to see the owl that was perched up on a rock, and we literally spent an hour trying to figure out why the **** this thing was there and my rogue played with it and tried making it his pet. It had nothing to do with the campaign, our DM just added it for visual purposes or something.
The second story came inside a dungeon, different campaign, but i had reused my rogue for this. We were exploring this dungeon and we came into a room that was surrounded by mirrors on the wall and in the center was this crystal ball. Behind it was the doorway but a large gap that no one could jump across. Immediately, everyone except our dwarf was consumed with curiosity about this crystal ball, our dwarf went ahead to this gap and found strange elven writing that said "The bridge across is invisible". He tried to decipher it but failed and then joined us with this crystal ball. My rogue poked his finger into the ball and out of the mirrors came a giant finger. So for almost 2 hours we played with this crystal ball, poking it, putting stuff thru it etc etc until my rogue had the "brilliant" idea to pick up our halfling and drop him into the crystal ball. Out of the mirror came a large halfling. We all freaked out (except him, he was happy he was big for once) and tried to figure out how to fix him. Once again, my rogue had the "brilliant" idea to push the large halfling off the edge and see if he would fall thru the mirrors. He did and out of the crystal ball came an even smaller halfling (I think he was classified as tiny now). So 2 hours spent on poking the crystal ball, 3 hours to fix our halfling (yes we did eventually get him back to regular size). We spent the entire session in one room, our DM was rather pissed and told us what to do just to end the suffering.
For me, I have 2. The first was in a cavern, we had just beaten an orc shaman whom diseased a small mining town's water supply. We were so happy because once he was died, the disease started disappearing and we found his loot bag which contained a potion of cure disease (we were all affected by the disease). We had just one more spot to check which contained a chest that was filled with mithral ore, gold, and various other valuables (including a baseball sized sapphire that is leading my rogue into another adventure. He's been having strange dreams of an old man offering his entire estate for the sapphire). However, instead of going straight to it, our ranger made a spot roll to see the owl that was perched up on a rock, and we literally spent an hour trying to figure out why the **** this thing was there and my rogue played with it and tried making it his pet. It had nothing to do with the campaign, our DM just added it for visual purposes or something.
The second story came inside a dungeon, different campaign, but i had reused my rogue for this. We were exploring this dungeon and we came into a room that was surrounded by mirrors on the wall and in the center was this crystal ball. Behind it was the doorway but a large gap that no one could jump across. Immediately, everyone except our dwarf was consumed with curiosity about this crystal ball, our dwarf went ahead to this gap and found strange elven writing that said "The bridge across is invisible". He tried to decipher it but failed and then joined us with this crystal ball. My rogue poked his finger into the ball and out of the mirrors came a giant finger. So for almost 2 hours we played with this crystal ball, poking it, putting stuff thru it etc etc until my rogue had the "brilliant" idea to pick up our halfling and drop him into the crystal ball. Out of the mirror came a large halfling. We all freaked out (except him, he was happy he was big for once) and tried to figure out how to fix him. Once again, my rogue had the "brilliant" idea to push the large halfling off the edge and see if he would fall thru the mirrors. He did and out of the crystal ball came an even smaller halfling (I think he was classified as tiny now). So 2 hours spent on poking the crystal ball, 3 hours to fix our halfling (yes we did eventually get him back to regular size). We spent the entire session in one room, our DM was rather pissed and told us what to do just to end the suffering.