Most frustrating anticlimaxes

[Alkerite]

Yes, the point of this thread is to gather a database of THE MOST FRUSTRATING ANTICLIMAXES.
I shall kick this thread off with my own story.
So, it was me, a summer's worth of free time, my own PC, and a fresh copy of skyrim. I couldn't give a flying flumph about the main story, and I mostly went around gathering stuff for the credit of doing it. Then I discovered labyrithian. Now, someone who knows skyrim a bit will know where this is going, but to clue those who don't have the knowledge; Labyrithian is a dungeon in skyrim, where you discover a mask; specifically the Wooden Mask. When you put it on where you found it you get transported back in time to when Labyrinthian wasn't all ruined. This clues you into an epic quest: find the masks that resemble the Wooden Mask. This is something the player can do entirely BY ACCIDENT. Nobody tells you anything about the masks in game, and only ONE of the like seven masks can be found in a dungeon where it's wearer is the goal. There's no markers, no throughline, just pure player motivation. Immediately, I was interested. However, I had gotten my ass rocked in labyrinthian, as it was a Troll infested hellscape. So I went back to the main storyline. I found the first mask (other than the wooden. Of course) on the way to the gray beards. I stumbled upon a Dragon Priest. After a half an hour of cheering it with arrows, I killed it, and collected my bounty.

Six masks, and a summer later, I returned to labyrinthian, to discover what lay beneath. A tusked Dragon Priest mask. It looked pretty cool, and since I got it in the same place I got the Wooden Mask, I thought it would lead me down a gratifying rabbit hole of Ye Olde Skyrim, perhaps building the priests I mercilessly cheesed as characters, or detailing the process of HOW they became uber powerful Dragon-Wizard-Liches. But no. Just a cool mask, with a cool power. I was younger, so I shrugged it off, and returned to the actual story, of questmarkers and content, but as I grew into adulthood, that feeling stuck with me. The disappointment I felt. I went on an epic quest with no in game help or guide, and all I had to show for it was a tusked Dragon Priest mask, and the full collection.

[Knaight]

Is this thread intended specifically for computer (and console) RPGs? If so, it's in the wrong section.

[Alkerite]

Is this thread intended specifically for computer (and console) RPGs? If so, it's in the wrong section.

Nah, it's about any variety of RPG, as this thread is Roleplaying Games, not Tabletop Games. And, I think this could be information useful to DMs, to help prevent these from cropping up in their games.

[Beastrolami]

I was in an early 5e campaign we nicknamed Teen Girl Squad (after the homestar sketch)

We all thought we were going to play a one-shot when we started, and jokingly decided to make an all female party (we are all guys, and usually play male characters). We all had very different backgrounds, urchin, noble, and guard. And the DM decided that we were all childhood friends who decided to make a social club (financed by the noble) where we would drink/gossip/paint our nails/go adventuring (yes, we went overboard with the female stereotypes). The story started out very positive, we whined about killing ratmen in the sewers, got hit on by random adventurers in the tavern, and berated the new player who refused to play a female. Following the theme, there was another social club in town run by a bunch of rich young socialites which we called the "Snobby B****s". They annoyed us by stealing our quests, throwing parties we weren't invited to, etc. We expected a quick one shot, haha, we're girls, and then done.

Then it got DARK. Our butler was kidnapped and tortured by the Snobby B***s, we were ambushed by mercenaries, and our clubhouse was raided. When we broke into the Snobby B***s stronghold to take revenge we fought her father, a powerful adventurer in his own right, and our butler sacrificed himself allowing us to escape. We were kicked out of town for "killing" the butler, and breaking into the Noble's house, and the only lead we had was that a village of dragonborn on the outskirts of town had been taken over by the city and turned into a giant mine.

So, a bunch of city girls wandered through the forest. Luckily, the guys who hit on us at the tavern had a ranger in their group, and he helped lead us through the forest.... until he betrayed us, captured my character, and imprisoned her in the mine. The party broke in, burned down the mine, saved the dragonborn village, and then tracked the fleeing guards back to a secret base build around the crater of a volcano. They were digging down to the lair of a sleeping black dragon which they wanted to control and use to conquer the town. We went in, expecting an impossible fight and got.....

a Deus ex Machina. The dm misunderstood the effect of sphere of annihilation, and thought it acted more like a black-hole, expanding until it reaches critical mass, and disheartening. So we got to see a dragon hoard, for a brief second, and then the sphere expanded, killing the dragon, killing the evil paladin who wanted to control the dragon and destroying half the mountain. We wandered back to town expecting to go on trial for the "murder and theft" mentioned earlier. We were greeted with open arms by our parents (who were famous adventurers who had been absent on a different adventure the entire game) and the butler who hadn't died at all. I remember looking at the dm during his description and saying, "no, you're wrong." But, he was right, he's the dm, and it was a really anticlimactic, and disappointing end to a surprisingly fun campaign.

[ATHATH]

Last night with your mum.

I'll show myself out now.