PDA

View Full Version : Alignment Shift...?



evisiron
2007-06-28, 06:48 PM
Basically, I had a bunch of players in a riddle based dungeon. One room contained the puzzle itself, and an alter.

The riddle was pretty basic, and the players nailed it. But they inspected the alter, and found a crypic message on it. To paraphrase, "Slit your throat, get a wish".

Fast forward: The good aligned samurai and druid have beaten one PC unconcious and slit the throat of the second (both were absent for that session).

Of course, the alter was not magical and the area was saturated with antimagic fields.

Just curious to see if anyone else has experienced this kind of stuff (oh, and GMs, feel free to throw that into your campaigns to see how far player curiosity will go)?

The_Chilli_God
2007-06-28, 07:03 PM
I did that once. Completely by mistake and it almost had the players committing suicide. Almost. Didn't quite happen, thank goodness.

Anyone familiar with this little anonymous epitaph?
"Beware, those who are passing by,
As you are now, so once was I,
And as I am now, so must you be,
Prepare for Death and follow me."
This was shoved onto three carvings during the party's journey through a crypt to find a powerful evil artifact or other, and I completely ruined their sense of self-satisfaction by having a random ghost come and steal the artifact at the last minute. Good thing that dungeon wasn't very long or complicated, otherwise I'd have had the group kicking me to the ground.
Anyway, the players took the line, "Prepare for Death and follow me" literally. Meaning that they had to die and become ghosts themselves in order to be able to pursue the ghost-thief.
"But... But no, the DM surely isn't asking us to commit suicide, is he?"
Well, I wasn't really. It almost happened, though. Almost.

Anyway, I don't really get why your samurai interpreted "Slit your throat, get a wish," to mean "Slit someone else's throat, get a wish." Guess free wishes would make anyone go nuts. :smallbiggrin:

Saph
2007-06-28, 07:04 PM
Hmm, murdering your companions for a wish might disqualify you from being Good-aligned? Ya think? :P You shouldn't have put a question mark in the title - you bet they've earned an alignment shift! I'd drop them both straight to Evil, though I suppose it's possible they could 'only' go Neutral (there might be extenuating circumstances, but I really really doubt it).

We actually had something similar in our last campaign - a temple to Gruumsh that could only be accessed by sacrificing an elf. Two of the party were elves, including me. There were some jokes on the way there about me being their 'elven sacrifice', but I knew they didn't mean it, and we ended up finding another way in. (If they had been the type of party to have meant it, I wouldn't have gone anywhere near the place.)

- Saph

Gerrtt
2007-06-28, 07:08 PM
The good aligned samurai should definitely be taking a hit. Slitting the throats of party members is an outrageously evil act. Depending on if the druid is Neutral Evil or will affect my thoughts on its consequences. How have they behaved the rest of the way during the campaign?

Piccamo
2007-06-28, 07:08 PM
Alignment describes characters. Its based entirely on their actions. If its evil, then its alignment may want to reflect that.