Suddenly chestbursters. Wrong way to kill a PC?

[Foxymew]

All right, so last session I was in with my group, at the start suddenly three of the 5 PCs suddenly died. Death happens, you have to accept that, but the way they died bothered me, and I know for a fact that had it been mine, I would have fought and possibly even quit over this. So here's what had happened. 3 months earlier, our characters had been fighting Slaad, and apparently they can infect you with eggs and basically be Xenomorphs. However, letting that kill the PCs with NO kind of warning just feels incredibly wrong for me. No 'you've been feeling sick' 'you've had stomach aches the last month" etc. I don't know if maybe he told those characters in private, but I doubt it. But I guess the question is if I would be justified in my rage if I were to die like that, I feel like it would be completely out of my hands, which is a terrible way to handle PC death. It should be from misfortune or dumb PC decisions, no? Not just set a timer for 3 months after an encounter with no hints that it might happen and thus essentially no way to stop it. The PCs got reincarnated, which would cost us 3000, which was luckily a paultry amount of money. But that's besides the point, and there also wasn't really an opportunity for us to get to a high level cleric or the like since we was in the middle of the wilderness, heading for a city that was under attack, it turned out.

SO yeah, would I be correct in being enraged?

[Mhl7]

I am afb right now, so I might be wrong.
I think the Slaadi infestation is a disease. This means that it can be removed with Lay on Hands. Actually with a single use of Lay on Hands you can remove any disease affecting the target. Check with the dead characters if they had diseases removed in that way in the last three month. If this is the case, they are saved. You can tell your DM and let it retcon it.

Back to your actual question. This is pretty much bad DMing. In my opinion the Slaadi infestetion should be treated more like a plot hook than anything else. It is either very easy to remove (see above) or the DM can put the players on a race against the clock to find a cure. Killing PCs out of the blue is really really bad and you are totally right to be angry.

[Foxymew]

If a Lay on Hands would have cured it, I'm pretty sure most would have been fine, especially the paladin, since he healed himself a few times, and I think he's done a few 1HP heals to get us up after massive damages.
Everyone seemed quite all right with the decision though, so I don't think retconning will be needed, but I do think I'll bring it up for the DM himself so that kind of stuff doesn't happen again. I would be livid myself.

Edit: Apparently, you need to specifically heal diseases by expending 5 points of Lay on Hands. But yeah, we should have been warned of it in some capacity or another.

[Arkhios]

I am afb right now, so I might be wrong.
I think the Slaadi infestation is a disease. This means that it can be removed with Lay on Hands. Actually with a single use of Lay on Hands you can remove any disease affecting the target. Check with the dead characters if they had diseases removed in that way in the last three month. If this is the case, they are saved. You can tell your DM and let it retcon it.

Back to your actual question. This is pretty much bad DMing. In my opinion the Slaadi infestetion should be treated more like a plot hook than anything else. It is either very easy to remove (see above) or the DM can put the players on a race against the clock to find a cure. Killing PCs out of the blue is really really bad and you are totally right to be angry.

Technically true about Lay on Hands, but a disease being cured by it isn't automatic. You have to choose whether to cure 5 hit points or cure a disease. You don't get both with every 5 hit points cured.

Edit: Blimey, me and my slow writing, a ninja attack!

But the rest of it is accurate. One thing that I'd like to know is, if the deceased party members had to make a constitution save for being infected or not. Because being infected by the slaad egg (which is a disease, as mentioned) isn't completly unavoidable. If the characters didn't make a save against it, then I'd say it's bad DM'ing.

[Foxymew]

Well, it was 3 months ago game-time, and we play once a week, so it was a long while ago, so I really don't remember, plus I wasn't affected, so there's a chance he did it privately or something to the PCs. But even so, I think a tiny frog eating you from the inside should give you a warning signs or two. Save for our bard who is cursed to feel no pain.

[Mhl7]

Technically true about Lay on Hands, but a disease being cured by it isn't automatic. You have to choose whether to cure 5 hit points or cure a disease. You don't get both with every 5 hit points cured.


Yeah, I know. That's why I added this line



Check with the dead characters if they had diseases removed in that way in the last three month.

[xanderh]

This is a screw-up on the part of your DM. The PCs are supposed to feel unwell, and has some mechanical downsides for 24 hours before dying.
Not to mention that the red slaad is a poorly designed monster. Being killed in this way is not in any way rewarding, and there's nothing inherent about slaadi that makes you research them to see if you're supposed to do something special after fighting them.
Everyone knows you're supposed to get a remove curse spell after fighting a werewolf. Slaadi aren't iconic enough that a cure disease is obvious to most players.

This is a major screw-up, and should be treated as such. Your DM should think a little more before pulling **** like this. Specifically, they should think about whether something might ruin the game for other players, and whether you had any way of avoiding the death. In this case, it doesn't sound like you had any way of knowing, which means you had no way of avoiding the death.

[Arkhios]

Yeah, I know. That's why I added this line

Oh, aye, but the way you said it at first kinda made me assume you thought it would be cured along with hit points not instead of hit points. Pardon my misunderstanding.

[Randomthom]

It's pretty poor of a GM to have that laying wait and not drop any hints.

Having said that, you dismiss the capability of the group to resurrect and carry on as irrelevant. Perhaps the GM saw this differently and just wanted to put a dent in your resources. I'm guessing that when you fought the Slaadi there was a failed save involved with no apparent immediate consequences? Perhaps that should have tipped off the meta-gamer within you though credit to you if you chose to ignore it because your character wouldn't know they had rolled a saving throw and failed/succeeded.

[Foxymew]

I don't think there was any save, but again, it was ages ago. And also before our characters became rich by winning a tournament. And also, it didn't really do anything at all to our resources, since I alone as the wizzard (Who admitedly don't use much gold at all) has around 23k gold, and the reincarnations cost 1k each.
And I personally don't metagame a whole lot, if at all. I try not to, anyway. But it can be hard to distinguish between common knowledge and not.

And it was reincarnation, not resurrection, so all but one had to change their race, and the two girls turned male, so we're suddenly at a sausage party. We're level 9, I believe, and the paladin was one of those to die, and I didn't have gentle repose prepared, but as a ritual, so we couldn't get him up in time to use his low level resurrection, which must happen before 10 minutes. Or something to that effect, the result was that it had to be reincarnation.

[Foxymew]

Also, being all Good aligned characters, there's easier ways to hamper our resources than resurrection fees.
I mean, hell, it didn't even actually cost gold, because I'd gotten an urn with 5 doses of the required material.
In the end, I think my biggest issue is the removal of player agency.

[VexingFool]

If it is indeed considered a disease the Paladin should have been immune due to Divine Health.

[Foxymew]

I don't remember if we're level 9 or 10 at the top of my head right now, but if the latter, our monk would also have been immune.

[Arkhios]

If it is indeed considered a disease the Paladin should have been immune due to Divine Health.

Not only considered, but is.

I just reread the ability and in fact only red slaad can infect the target with an egg (which is a disease), and while it indeed takes 3 months before birth, the target begins to feel unwell only 24 hours before birth. :O

[Dr.Samurai]

Whether the guys were immune or not is a different story.

I... don't think that the DM is intrinsically wrong here, or handled it well. But it really depends on the type of campaign you're playing in. It's pretty "real" to not know that's going on until it happens. The chestbursters in Alien don't make you feel anything until you sit down to dinner with your friends.

If the DM checked behind the screen for infection, and then didn't warn anyone until it happened, I'm ok with that. You just have to be sure, as the DM, to be aware of it at all times. Because, yeah, if someone became immune (say by leveling up), then that changes things. If someone had diseases removed from him, then that changes things.

But, I don't see why PCs should automatically know they're diseased if the disease isn't something obvious or doesn't make you feel ill.

I think the Reincarnation bit would probably upset me more than anything.

[Joe the Rat]

There should have definitely been warning signs - Con saves when slashed, and a 24 hour "I don't feel so good" should have happened.

But it can also be easy to forget the infection. I've got a player whose character is about 2 weeks (gametime) into his Slaadidaddy condition. I called out the Con save, and specifically noted the wound being kind of "itchy" when he got it. Given our pace of play, and the nature of the player, he's likely forgotten it. This is reminding me that I need to make sure he has his 24 hours of "not feeling good" before bursting.
The fact that he hates/fears the paladin and rarely relies on spells for conditional curatives may make for an interesting session.

[Sir cryosin]

Does your DM often do what would be considered malicious or unfair or anything akind to being a BAD DM?.
How strictly does he keep to the rules?
I ask because this sounds like a PC being a brat and not wanting to lose his character. because he has a special figurine. And what does the party being a sausage feast have anything to do with it.
Also you being a wizard you should of have some kind of knowledge or Slaads. Now by default all us PC's get salty when things happen that are out of are controll. So if the players that died are ok with what happen let laying dogs be. But if the DM did it on purpose with out giving you the contract when you were first infected and then didn't give you the 24 hour before it bursts out of your chest to do something then you have the right to be mad. Give the DM benefit of the doubt because he could have forgotten stuff unless he has a history of being a bad DM and making bad calls.

[Nupo]

Sounds like a DM that chose Wisdom to be his dump stat.

[StoicLeaf]

Well RAW, your chars would have felt REALLY sick 24h before explosive torso syndrome.
If you didn't get that then .. eh, it's kinda mean. Unless you're in a campaign where "lol you're dead!" can happen at anytime.

[KorvinStarmast]

This is a screw-up on the part of your DM. The PCs are supposed to feel unwell, and has some mechanical downsides for 24 hours before dying.
Might have been an interesting place to use the exhaustion mechanic during each session, to signal the seriousness of the disease/parasite. (Like a tapeworm, but a whole lot worse ...)

[Captain Panda]

The DM did nothing wrong except not give warning symptoms 24 hours before the deaths. Honestly this just strikes me as collective whining because the DM didn't pull punches.

[dejarnjc]

"In the 24-hour period before giving birth, the host starts to feel unwell, its speed is halved, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. At birth, the tadpole chews its way through vital organs and out of the host's chest in 1 round, killing the host in the process.
If the disease is cured before the tadpole's emergence, the unborn slaad is disintegrated.


The text from the Monster Manual for anyone interested. Long story short, the PCs should have had 24 hour warning essentially.

I'd complain too since it's pretty much against the rules and just a cheesy move IMO. This isn't about a DM not "pulling his punches". It's about a DM that fails to accurately inform the players of the in game circumstances.

[Tetrasodium]

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. , one target.
Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage. If the target is a humanoid,
it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be
infected with a disease- a minuscule slaad egg.
A humanoid host can carry only one slaad egg to term at a
time. Over three months, the egg moves to the chest cavity,
gestates, and forms a slaad tadpole. In the 24-hour period
before giving birth, the host starts to feel unwell, its speed is
halved, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks,
and saving throws. At birth, the tadpole chews its way through
vital organs and out of the host's chest in 1 round, killing the
host in the process.
If the disease is cured before the tadpole's emergence, the
unborn slaad is disintegrated.



Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage. If the target is a humanoid ,
it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be
infected with a disease called chaos phage. While infected,
the target can't regain hit points, and its hit point maxim um is
reduced by 10 (3d6) every 24 hours. If the disease reduces the
target's hit point maximum to 0, the target instantly transforms
into a red slaad or, if it has the ability to cast spells of 3rd
level or higher, a green slaad. Only a wish spell can reverse the
transformation.
Green Grey & Death Slaad do not appear to have similar capabilities. There are some rather obvious signs during those 24 hours & even the uninfected party members should have noticed something was wrong with their feebleminded friends if the infected 5(?!) did not.

[Foxymew]

No, I'm perfectly fine being killed either by bad luck or bad decisions, I just don't think taking a player's agency away is a good thing.
And the sausage party was just a fun little tidbit, I don't care either way, my character is an old man who hides under a robe all day, he don't care for girls as long as he hasn't unlocked the sought after immortality.

And we don't have a 'high death' kind of game, it's his first time DMing, so we kept things fairly vanilla, while spicing things up, like having a section with pokemon, basically. It was a fun side thing, and also only worked in one single area. However, he was taking the Slaadi from a homebrew thing, which I personally basically made it so nope, it's not a disease, so our Paladin being immune to diseases didn't matter. And I haven't raised a ruckus about it, I did bring it up in private afterwards, as I decided to just let it be since the other players didn't complain, but let him know that I wouldn't have accepted something like that.
We're all rookies in this, none of us had ever even heard, let alone seen a Slaad before. It's only our second game (Our druid was the GM last campaign, doing the starter kit campaign)

The only excuse for a warning we had was that our druid used divination to ask if it was dangerous or something, and we were told we might die if we go down there. Which is a useless thing, because we can almost always die. I almost got instantly permakilled by a single cyclops who got a crit and nearly got me to 100% negative health, which is instakill. And it was kind of a quest location too, at least it was brought up like one, and something our characters, due to alignment would pretty much always go to regardless.

I can't exactly accept that a monster literally eating and growing in your insides for 3 months won't show ANY signs whatsoever.

As said, I'm perfectly fine dying in concept. I've even thought of a different character if that would be the case. That, in itself isn't the issue at all. The figurine is actually largely irrelevant, and I shouldn't have mentioned it because it obviously skews some people's perspectives. I'm an adult, and when the figurine isn't going to be used in a campaign, I'll find it a spot as a display piece. It was just an extra bit of annoyance, not nearly the reason for the anger.

[StoicLeaf]

No, I'm perfectly fine being killed either by bad luck or bad decisions, I just don't think taking a player's agency away is a good thing.
And the sausage party was just a fun little tidbit, I don't care either way, my character is an old man who hides under a robe all day, he don't care for girls as long as he hasn't unlocked the sought after immortality.

And we don't have a 'high death' kind of game, it's his first time DMing, so we kept things fairly vanilla, while spicing things up, like having a section with pokemon, basically. It was a fun side thing, and also only worked in one single area. However, he was taking the Slaadi from a homebrew thing, which I personally basically made it so nope, it's not a disease, so our Paladin being immune to diseases didn't matter. And I haven't raised a ruckus about it, I did bring it up in private afterwards, as I decided to just let it be since the other players didn't complain, but let him know that I wouldn't have accepted something like that.
We're all rookies in this, none of us had ever even heard, let alone seen a Slaad before. It's only our second game (Our druid was the GM last campaign, doing the starter kit campaign)

The only excuse for a warning we had was that our druid used divination to ask if it was dangerous or something, and we were told we might die if we go down there. Which is a useless thing, because we can almost always die. I almost got instantly permakilled by a single cyclops who got a crit and nearly got me to 100% negative health, which is instakill. And it was kind of a quest location too, at least it was brought up like one, and something our characters, due to alignment would pretty much always go to regardless.

I can't exactly accept that a monster literally eating and growing in your insides for 3 months won't show ANY signs whatsoever.

As said, I'm perfectly fine dying in concept. I've even thought of a different character if that would be the case. That, in itself isn't the issue at all. The figurine is actually largely irrelevant, and I shouldn't have mentioned it because it obviously skews some people's perspectives. I'm an adult, and when the figurine isn't going to be used in a campaign, I'll find it a spot as a display piece. It was just an extra bit of annoyance, not nearly the reason for the anger.

Eh, not much of a warning.
I'd put it down to your DM being new.
No offence intended, but most DMs when starting out think they need to be crafty to slip things past their players when in reality, they really, really don't.

In this example .. what was his overarching game plan? That you latch onto the "you might die!" bit and probe deeper?
Too shallow, too vague and ultimately, his "fault".
The truth of the matter is you can often beat players over the head with hints and information, if they wanna think zebras when you're showing them horses, then that's exactly what they'll do.

I hope he adjusts before this becomes an issue again. For everyone's sake.

[JNAProductions]

Talk to your DM, explain your feelings, but honestly? This sounds okay. The DM made some goofs, but nothing too terrible, and the game goes on.

Perhaps you should discuss expectations. It's very realistic for that to happen with little warning, but if you came expecting grand heroics without as much realism, then explain that. There's nothing wrong with either style, it's just that they don't work together super well.

[Foxymew]

I guess I more expect not to just randomly die without warning or the need to metagame. Player agency is super important to me. And nothing ever said 'oh these toad things can infect you' or 'you should watch out after meeting one' or anything of the sort. In a sense, is it any different than just putting a switch on a wall that springs an instant kill trap?
You're going to press the button because it's there, and there's been no warning against it, you know? I mean, yeah, it's not the best idea to just press buttons, but if the only other option is leave the dungeon and go to another one, what are you to do? It was either go fight those things and get some items we were heavily incentivised beforehand to get, or just leave, and not get to participate as much in an event that had been built up a lot.
If we go into a town wreaked by a plague, I'll assume I need to go to a cleric immediately. Bitten by vampire or werewolf same thing. And if I don't, that's my own fault for reaping the consequences.
I'm also a bit worried with the fact he's using homebrew stuff as a new DM. I mean, I've seen Super Sayain class/race. That stuff ain't balanced. Homebrew needs a knowledged touch, what I can gather. Though he's a good DM, we have a lot of fun and stuff. But it's still his first go and whatnot.
And I did bring it up with him, and there's no hard feelings and whatnot. And I mean, if you want to bring realism to it, you can't tell me victims of botflies don't feel that ****, that stuff's terrifying.

[Erys]

However, he was taking the Slaadi from a homebrew thing, which I personally basically made it so nope, it's not a disease, so our Paladin being immune to diseases didn't matter.

This strikes me as a str8 d!ck move.

Like he didn't realize the Paladin should have been immune but was too immature to just admit the error and retcon.

But, meh, what do I know?

On the flip side:


I can't exactly accept that a monster literally eating and growing in your insides for 3 months won't show ANY signs whatsoever.

You could have a tapeworm live inside you for over twenty years, and never know.

[Foxymew]

Well, he has been dabbling in homebrew, and the Slaadi were part of what was essentially a pokemon thing, having crystals in their head that acted as pokeballs.

As for tapeworms, as far as I can tell, once they start to actually do damage, you tend to have symptoms.

[Erys]

I guess I more expect not to just randomly die without warning or the need to metagame. Player agency is super important to me. And nothing ever said 'oh these toad things can infect you' or 'you should watch out after meeting one' or anything of the sort. In a sense, is it any different than just putting a switch on a wall that springs an instant kill trap?
You're going to press the button because it's there, and there's been no warning against it, you know? I mean, yeah, it's not the best idea to just press buttons, but if the only other option is leave the dungeon and go to another one, what are you to do? It was either go fight those things and get some items we were heavily incentivised beforehand to get, or just leave, and not get to participate as much in an event that had been built up a lot.
If we go into a town wreaked by a plague, I'll assume I need to go to a cleric immediately. Bitten by vampire or werewolf same thing. And if I don't, that's my own fault for reaping the consequences.
I'm also a bit worried with the fact he's using homebrew stuff as a new DM. I mean, I've seen Super Sayain class/race. That stuff ain't balanced. Homebrew needs a knowledged touch, what I can gather. Though he's a good DM, we have a lot of fun and stuff. But it's still his first go and whatnot.
And I did bring it up with him, and there's no hard feelings and whatnot. And I mean, if you want to bring realism to it, you can't tell me victims of botflies don't feel that ****, that stuff's terrifying.

One other point...

At any time you (or any PC) could have decided to go research the 'frog creatures we had to slay a couple weeks ago' to fill the void in knowledge and possibly learn about the Slaad as much as you know about vampires and werewolves. The DM should have, if asked, given a knowledge check to know about the eggs too. Imho at least.

[Erys]

Well, he has been dabbling in homebrew, and the Slaadi were part of what was essentially a pokemon thing, having crystals in their head that acted as pokeballs.

As for tapeworms, as far as I can tell, once they start to actually do damage, you tend to have symptoms.

Crystals in there heads that control them? That isn't homebrew.

If they actually went into pokeballs, I guess that could be though. lol

[Rynjin]

Just about any way you kill a PC that involves the word "suddenly" is the wrong way.

"And suddenly, ninjas attack and kill you"

"Suddenly, an avalanche sweeps over your bodies and the whole party is dead"

"Suddenly the Demon Lord Gooblepod rises up beneath your feet, slaying you instantly"

"Suddenly your chests burst open and you die"

The only difference between the last and the first three is the last relies on (misapplied) rules to justify the bad choice.

[Foxymew]

Yeah, but should we really be expected to research every single monster we encounter? I don't see how that contributes to a fun gameplay. And I mean, if that was the case, the fact that we visit every single library we see (mostly for potion recepies for me and the druid, and history stuff for the monk) could have been a time where he could go "Oh, you find these books," and include something about slaads, so we had some kind of incentive to look them up, perhaps.
And it's not really natural for any of our characters to look up that kind of stuff, I don't feel. Our paladin wants to destroy a large criminal organization in one of the capitals, druid wants to find out how to fix this deadly fog that rolls in at night and kills anything not undead. My character wants to live forever, because he's a bird who only lives an average of 40 years, and he feels it's too short. Bard is a noblewoman who wants to clear her name or somesuch. Monk, I can't remember, but she likes making history checks all the time.
Granted, my character has unlocked the knowledge, and now needs the power for immortality, so I guess I could make him research monsters from now on, but that happened literally a few in-game days before the Slaad spawn burst out. We've also figured out the deal with the fog, so druid could also do that, but again, we figured that out the same time my character got the knowledge.

And being our second campaign, first one not to be the starting trial campaign, so to speak, how much are we expected to know to do? It's easy for a veteran to see a whole bunch of stuff us novices will easily overlook. Learning by doing and all, of course, but it could be handled better, I feel.

[Foxymew]

Crystals in there heads that control them? That isn't homebrew.

If they actually went into pokeballs, I guess that could be though. lol

No no, the slaad had crystals in their heads that we could extract (With a medicine check) that turned out could be used to catch pokemon. Said pokemon were basically creatures from another dimension that were halfway into ours, so they could essentially only interract with each other, and only in a specific place of the country. It was loads of fun, we had a big tournament and won like 50k gold.

[Erys]

Yeah, but should we really be expected to research every single monster we encounter?

...

No no, the slaad had crystals in their heads that we could extract (With a medicine check) that turned out could be used to catch pokemon. Said pokemon were basically creatures from another dimension that were halfway into ours, so they could essentially only interract with each other, and only in a specific place of the country. It was loads of fun, we had a big tournament and won like 50k gold.

Wait, you came across frog creatures that each had a stone in its head which allowed you basically play Pokemon with quasi dimensional creatures... and you didn't want to know more about it?!? o.0!

Honestly, knowing it alone was worth 50k, I am surprised you didn't go find someone to get all three a good rez. But, whats done is done. In a world where you can resurrect, and have the funds to do so, whats a couple unannounced deaths between friends? 8)

[TripleD]

Why did the reincarnation change their gender? I just had a sorcerer who was reincarnated and the table only involves a potential change of race.

[Sir cryosin]

Well, he has been dabbling in homebrew, and the Slaadi were part of what was essentially a pokemon thing, having crystals in their head that acted as pokeballs.

As for tapeworms, as far as I can tell, once they start to actually do damage, you tend to have symptoms.

From what you described so far there's really nothing home-brewed about those Slaads. In the monster manual they all have gyms in their heads that if you have controlled the gym you can control them. Red ones do lay eggs inside of you.

Also for three months you wouldn't know anything because you have eggs inside of you eggs are not destroying your body they are just in there it's when they hatch after 24 hours is when you start showing symptoms that's where he messed up. Windows eggs hatch you had a 24-hour period to figure out what was wrong with you and cure it. For those three months leading up into the 24-hour. You wouldn't shown any symptoms. This is a good lesson to teach the importants or research and planning. There are a lot of monsters in the book with stupid abilities that can just kill you. So if your acting like this with a Slaads your not going to like intellect devours, mine flares, beholder, ect.



You don't have to research every monster you come across just when you see one you haven't ever seem before just ask if y'all can make a arcana, nature, history or what ever check is appropriate to gain some insight. Your characters have knowledge that you as a player don't have and that's when calling for rolls help.

[Coffee_Dragon]

In the monster manual they all have gyms in their heads that if you have controlled the gym you can control them.

Some people assume this is true for all humanoids, hence the "gym in the guy" fallacy.

[JNAProductions]

Some people assume this is true for all humanoids, hence the "gym in the guy" fallacy.

Made me laugh out loud. Thank you.

[Foxymew]

Well, for one, it was just a small bit of the campaign, one or two sessions, and we were done, and we had limited time, so there literally was no point in researching it further. And it was homebrew in the sense that the Slaadi weren't considered diseases and whatnot. That's just what he's said, anyway.
The gender change was just for ****s and giggles, he was like "Wait, should the reincarnation change gender too, maybe?" and then everyone decided to flip a coin because they wanted to. And we couldn't get a proper resurrection off, because then we'd have to turn around and spend like an in-game week just traveling back to the last town we were at, which we could easily have to go through encounters and the like. I mean, hell, we're being chased by a revenant and the black knight from Monty Python, who both show up at random intervals.

And I also think I did call for a check, because I tend to do that for most new things. Again, months ago, I don't recall much at all from the encounter, because it was kind of underwhelming.