Just a Fun Story

[Sparky McDibben]

So my wife and I play 1:1 D&D. She's currently a level 20 rogue, and because I'm an easy DM she's got quite a few nifty little perks as she goes. She's gearing up to fight the final boss now, and part of that boss' plan was to flood the docks with a lot of real bad types hunting cops, massacring civilians, spreading panic and fear, yadda, yadda, you get it.

So I thought it would be fun to have some kind of joker in the deck, and I decided the BBEG had posted a 1 million gold piece bounty on her head. Enough that most people will want to claim it, but that the bounty states she has to be taken alive and delivered to the cops. So I got to thinking about what kind of creatures would go after this legendary Batman-esque rogue running around my urban setting, and I came up with the idea of using a halfling bounty hunter - kind of a Samwise Gamgee reference.

So yesterday I took a storm giant, changed its size to Small and made it a halfling, reskinned the greatsword as a frying pan (but left the damage as 6d6 + 9), gave it 4 attacks, Action Surge, and made the lightning strike a bonus action.

She had just finished a short rest, and this little halfling comes up. I played him as the most bumpkinny halfling who ever bumpkinned, and gave him a very yokel voice ("Aw geez, did ya hurt yer head there, ma'am? I did ask fer ya to come along quiet-like, but OK..." think Pumat Sol meets Dudley Do-Right), and he challenged her to single combat.

So naturally, she accepted. Hehehe....

First round she crits on Sneak Attack, hits him for something like 115 points of damage. So he Action Surged, and hit her for about 200. I about died laughing watching her face go from glee, to disbelief, to shock, to horror as this little hafling is averaging like 30 points of damage per hit. She ended the round with 34 hit points, and only managed to pull a win out by running, hiding, and striking from the shadows as he chased her.

She left him alive and interrogated him, despite her (the player) being somewhat irritated for springing this crap on her. And now I have this little halfling running around my setting, beating the bejesus out of people with his frying pan.

I'm not sure how to weave him back into the narrative. I think he's been beaten and won't go for the bounty again, but he feels an honor debt for being left alive. Should I introduce him as an escape valve for the BBEG fight, or use him as background color, or just have him retire and head back to the Administrative District (which is definitely not the Shire)?

What was the best reversal you ever pulled on a player?

[firelistener]

IMO, it's always good to reward players for victories in some fashion, so I'd probably have the halfling come back and offer a minor reward of some kind. Could be information the player needs, an item, or some kind of service. I imagine someone as strong as the bumpkin halfling has a fairly strong reputation of his own after giving the rogue a run for her money, so some kind of social favor might work using his influence over an organization. That could be something like getting guards to agree not to show up to work the night of a heist, or getting some friends of his to stage a protest and lure the corrupt cops away from the protagonist's quest.

[Droodicus]

Give the bbeg a pet spider for the bumpkin to slay

[Laserlight]

"I feel obligated to give you my greatest secret. You'll need two pounds of mushrooms, half a pound of bacon, five tablespoons of butter...oh, and I heard the BBEG's Ultra Secret Emergency Back Door is in the cellar of The Pink Dragon."