Deciding what to do with a player's character....

[SangoProduction]

So, a player recently rage quit over the most minor of strife (or I assume they did, because they just left without saying a word...on the first day he was a part of the campaign).

What happened was the party happened upon the egg of a cthulian monster, essentially. One of the other players, a paladin, went to rush ahead of the vampire the changeling had tricked in to helping us (thank the natural 20). I mean, we could have just left the room locked up, and taken the key-artifact that we were tasked with recovering....but everyone wanted to see what was (predictably) behind the door the vampire was trying to get at.

So...The paladin shoots divine energy to try and destroy the egg, and the muscle-bound fighter (the guy who left) tried to stop it. They both expended every resource they had, and ended up with the exact same roll at the end of it. (Meanwhile, we are sitting on the sidelines letting the two duke it out in the most epic DBZ scream-off ever!)

We ultimately stopped the session there, as we couldn't decide how to proceed in a way that everyone's happy with....particularly that guy. So in discord, before he left, he said something along the lines of "I expected religious conflict, not abor..." (censored for the forum). Pretty funny.

But now we've got a hanger on character. We have essentially decided that he absorbs the eldritch horror's essence to save it, and he becomes the aboleth's new host or whatever. Some random bs. Sounds interesting. Any other ideas as to how to get rid of the character in an interesting fashion?

[Wraith]

An alternative title for the thread: 1001 ways to remove a PC from your game :smalltongue:

1) The epic duel caused a huge rock to loosen in the roof; it suddenly falls free and crushes him instantly into red paste.

2) Same deal, but reversed so that the floor gives way - he becomes the rock and disappears into the dark chasm below.

3) Have you seen Prometheus? Or maybe just Aliens? Either way, one of the Cthulian eggs hatches, grabs him by the face and he runs screaming into the darkness to become something less... recognisable in the near future.

4) Thoroughly depleted of skill points, he's no match for the Vampire Changeling who immediately shanks him from behind, takes a big bite out of his throat, and runs off cackling into the darkness.

5) Outraged that the Paladin would defy his authority (or what authority he thinks he has....) the Fighter declares the party to be a bunch of traitors and storms off alone, unwilling to help them in their quest. Depending on how you feel personally about the character, he can either turn up sullenly drinking in a tavern after the adventure, or alternatively they find him impaled on the first trap that the party's rogue was supposed to deal with.

[16bearswutIdo]

The fighter is upset that a Paladin destroyed the egg of one of the most devious and evil creatures known to inhabit the world?

Alrighty then.

I'd just have him storm out of the dungeon, personally. Maybe he's absorbed part of the aboleth's essence (is that actually a thing?), but I'd let that hold off and have his character come back later as a villain. Or let the PC realize "hey i just got upset IRL at the destruction of an egg of pure evil, maybe I'm in the wrong" and let him come back to the table with the same character if he wants

[Quertus]

So, rather than try to "redeem the wicked" on an egg that held absolutely no threat, and every potential to become good, the Paladin choose to go infanticide murderhobo? Sigh. Sounds like the best "paladin fall" story I've heard in a while, at least.

[Quertus]

Oh, right, your question. Hmmm...

Personally, I would have him - and the egg - abducted by the Holier than Thou society, a secret organization dedicated to conversion of evil children, and to the extermination of unrepentant villainy.

I mean, I was most recently on the Paladin's side of this, with a party that would murderhobo sentient beings without the opportunity for redemption*, but would leave alive non-sentient threats to humanity that were not capable of making good choices. I had to fire bomb the Aliens** nest because the rest of the party were too interested in getting pets to care about the threat to humanity. :smalleek:

Still, if this is a sentient being, proper child rearing, and hearty doses of Mindrape should produce an upstanding citizen. So play that angel (pun intended).

* Including killing surrendered enemies that I was trying to redeem.
** "Alien" is probably a bad example, as those are intelligent, and may be capable of moral judgement? These things that the party wanted to keep around weren't.

[JyP]

But now we've got a hanger on character. We have essentially decided that he absorbs the eldritch horror's essence to save it, and he becomes the aboleth's new host or whatever. Some random bs. Sounds interesting. Any other ideas as to how to get rid of the character in an interesting fashion?
Well, it seems obvious that the fighter got infected by the weird egg, hence why he fought the paladin to the death.
- the eldritch horror in the egg reincarnated itself as the fighter. He is now a DMPC with weird quirks, attempting to hide its inhumanity from the PCs.
- the fighter got feebleminded and can now only say one word : 'Hodor'. But the PCs are his friends... which will need to babysit him a bit.
- a great miracle happens - the fighter redeems and say he see the right way now. He will become the paladin's disciple, hanging on him and following him everywhere - he sees the paladin as an angel, and will be a cohort to the paladin's newly acquired leadership. Whether the paladin likes it or not.

... or any combination from the above :smallwink:

[Darth Ultron]

Have the character become the 'new' egg.

[SangoProduction]

Quite few interesting suggestions here. This looks like it'll be fun to watch.