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View Full Version : Gamer Tales When the party successfully prevented the DM from aiding them.



Jay R
2022-02-22, 03:06 PM
I was running a game of AD&D 2e. The characters were 1st level, which means the wizard only gets one spell per day. To alleviate that, I included a 1st level Pearl of Power in the first treasure they found.

Unfortunately, the bard got to the treasure first, decided that a pearl was the smallest valuable item, and privately pocketed it for himself.

The player then forgot it, and they never learned that it was magic.

---

So what are your stories?

Lacco
2022-02-22, 03:52 PM
Ohhhh. Got so many of those.

The Game: Riddle of Steel (medieval, very low magic, gritty combat)
The Premise: Travelling heroes get into various trouble while uncovering a conspiracy of international dimensions
The GM: me.

Our party of intrepid heroes just managed to leave a dungeon, quite exhausted, some of them wounded. They decide to ride back to civilization, but I have some other plans for them. Namely 3B: bad weather, bandits (they actually want to find those due to a bounty) and bears (in bad weather). However, their ranger fumbles the roll, getting them lost in the middle of a wilderness (and the local barbarian decides to 'help' while unskilled and with terrible roll makes it impossible to return to their original path even further). So they wander lost for two days.

At this point, they are lost, exhausted, wounded. So I decide to be a good guy for once: and they see lights in distance. A roadside inn/trading post! And a road (that would lead them to the bandits they were seeking). They decide to scout it out. Meanwhile, I am quickly jotting down NPCs inside... innkeeper, a former soldier, his wife, a bit sick but very pleasant lady with some shady past, a fur trapper with few companions, a peddler with lots of useless stuff, and a travelling healer! My idea is that they get a good nights' sleep, maybe engage in some banter or trade and then ride to find the bandits.

Then the viking-style barbarian's player speaks.

VB: "I don't like this."
GM: "...is that in character?"
The player is something between immersion-focused roleplayer and storyteller, so he just looks at me surprised. "Of course, I even used my barbarian voice." Now the other barbarian (let's call him "classic" barbarian) in the group chimes in.
CB: "Me not like either."
The character's not really fluent in the language the others speak, and the player is very immersion-focused roleplayer. I raise my eyebrows a bit. The ranger (silent ranger) and fencer (silent clean-freak fencer) join the discourse.
R: "Is suspicious. This whole inn."
F: "I bet the bandits use this damn inn as a front."
At this point, my eyebrows are somewhere in the middle of my forehead.
VB: "Let's not spook them. I'll talk to the innkeeper and find out using... lo-chica."
The viking barbarian actually started to learn to read during the campaign, first using the holy book of Herr-barium. Something of an in-game joke, but he took it seriously and when he found a book on logic, he decided to apply it on everything. At this point, I am unsure what is going on, but being big on improvisation and not wanting to cramp their style as they seem to be enjoying it, I decide to play along.

Innkeeper: "So, what can I get you? A beer? Some wine? Food? Or just warm beds?"
VB: "Tell me, good man... have you heard a word on bandits around here?"
Innkeeper: "No, not really."
VB: "Ah. Good. So you are saying this is a safe road. Is it?"
Innkeeper: "As far as I know, yes."
VB: "And how do you have fresh beer around here, in the forests?"
Innkeeper: "Well, there is a small village a day of ride along the road."
VB: "Thank you."

Innkeeper leaves. They did not order anything.

VB: "He's lying. He said he has not heard of any bandits! He must be in league with them!"
The others agree with him, and start discussing whether to stay, order two rooms and stay in one, armed and ready to fight for their lives, or to just go.
By this time my eyebrows are not to be found, as I am fully aware that my original plan is going to end in hell. I try to give them few pointers.
GM: "You look around. The trapper is leaving with his companions, stating they have to return to their cabin in the woods. The healer is off to the bed, and the peddler is getting solidly drunk by this time. The innkeeper approaches, asking if you decided to have a dinner or not.

VB: "Oh no, we'll be going."
Innkeeper: "But the weather... it's raining outside. Don't you want to stay? I'll give you a discount on the rooms..."
CB: "NO! WE GO! YOU BANDIT SCUM!"

I try to give them a GM view. "Look guys, it's just an inn..."
Fencer's player: "No, it's not just an inn. We know it's a trap - we know your tricks. You'll have to do better than that!"

...they left. Camped in the rain, masterfully succeeded on every check to navigate to the town through the woods, avoiding any and all dangers. Except the bandits: they found their camp, deep in woods and proceeded to wipe them out. Still, the Grey Tankard Tavern went bankrupt.

Xervous
2022-02-22, 04:02 PM
It’s a refinery for magically conductive sludge located in the middle of nowhere in the polar region. Its continued operation benefits enemies of the party. “Oh it’s something they’ll bumble by eventually and clear. Get a few new crew members from among the enslaved workers.”

Magically conductive is all but stated to mean there will be a very big boom, with accompanying wild magic effects. The party disguises and talks their way in. They stealth kill an overseer as a No Roll It’s Trivial.

So what do they do? They start blasting. There’s multiple descriptions given for the open vats that start bubbling and steaming... and oops there’s a sludge volcano eruption melting most of the workers they wanted to save.

That’s it? No. There’s the reinforced storage tanks for the concentrated stuff. At about the time one party member discovered where the workers’ sleeping quarters were (hey you can still get some recruits!) the wizard blasted a hole in one of the tanks.

We rolled d10000 for the three who got stuck out in the blast. Elf went bald (soon to be growing brambles), Bard’s grafted arm gained murderous sentience, and the wizard was marked for demon sacrifice.

This all on returning from a venture to get something to pay off the debt incurred by getting the bard a replacement arm.

KorvinStarmast
2022-02-22, 04:03 PM
So what are your stories? 1. The party found six beads of force when we looted a dragon hoard. (DM rolled for items, six was the number rolled). Each of the PCs had one in their pocket, and never used it for weeks and weeks of play.
One day, a few levels later, my warlock decided to show the rest of the players that using consumables was OK. (She had one, the wizard did not, since her spells are a bit limited). I had her use hers when four chimera did an air strike on our party as they traveled out of the mountains and into the western kingdom.
When they saw how that took one enemy out of the fight for ten rounds (yes, it helped that the Dex save was failed) they began to realize that, in the future, they too could impact the battles. I think that only one person has not used his.
2. Wand of paralysis. That wand sat inert in the wizards inventory for over a RL year after we got it from a treasure horde (Four trolls). One day the wizard player didn't show up and another player used it, and that "why hasn't he used this before?" question arose.
3. Six of seven players still have not used the tattoos I gave them a year ago (me DM). (The kind that lets you cast a spell).

Pex
2022-02-22, 07:11 PM
I was running a game of AD&D 2e. The characters were 1st level, which means the wizard only gets one spell per day. To alleviate that, I included a 1st level Pearl of Power in the first treasure they found.

Unfortunately, the bard got to the treasure first, decided that a pearl was the smallest valuable item, and privately pocketed it for himself.

The player then forgot it, and they never learned that it was magic.

---

So what are your stories?

That's why you don't play Finders Keepers treasure keeping. That's why you don't play with That Guy. I'd almost be inclined to have the pearl suddenly be cursed that screws the player over for being greedy, but this is an out of game problem so fix it out of game. If DMs enable this behavior then it's their fault too. Tell the player this is not the type of game you want to run and choose to behave differently. If the player refuses and quits all the better.

That said, I have a story where the players weren't being donkey cavities but misread the situation.

The party just cleared out an evil Necromancer's Tower. There was a cavern complex underneath to check out. After defeating an area of ghouls, the wizard sent his familiar to scout ahead. It was promptly killed by what it found, and two young wyrmling dragons arrived and fought the party. After the fight the party decided to short rest right after, in that same area where they also fought the ghouls. What the party didn't know was that there an oni with the dragons meant to be part of that fight. Therefore, while the party rested the oni gathered up the dragons' treasure and went through a secret door back to its lair.

After the rest the party continued on. They reached the dragons' lair, but it was empty. They moved on and found some fairies in cages. Through dialogue I had the fairies remind the party that dragons have treasure and should have looked for it. They went back to search the dragons' lair. There was no treasure to find since it was taken, but they conveniently found a gold coin as a clue that there was a treasure. Instead of searching the area the determined the Necromancer somehow came back to life or otherwise undead who took the treasure. They wanted to go check, so they all promptly left the dungeon and went back into the Necromancer's Tower, found the body and verified he was dead and stayed dead. Meanwhile, the oni took the opportunity to leave the cavern, unharmed, through another exit the party was meant to find, taking all the treasure with him since the opportunity presented itself as the dragons were dead and the party never knew he was there.

Next campaign. I'm running Dragonheist. It's set in my own world and I changed the names around, but I'll reference the module. I chose not to have any one main villain. Everyone wanted the Stone of Golorr for the Vault. The bartender from the Yawning Portal was the one responsible for the nimblewright throwing the Fireball because he was part of my world's equivalent of the Harpers and just wanted the Stone destroyed because it was an evil artifact of an evil creature, but Xanathar, the Zhentarim, the Cassalanters, etc. were all trying to get the Stone. They finally reach the Gralhund Estate.

In my game The Gralhunds backstabbed the Zhentarim in wanting the Stone for themselves. That's why the fight. Problem was the various nimblewrights in the world was gaining sentience, becoming warforged, due to events from the previous campaign. That's how the bartender was able to manipulate the nimblewright to help him. The party never finds this out.

Upon reaching the Gralhund estate they realize the difficulty of getting in. They think of several ways. They could climb over the wall at the back of the mansion. They had meat to give to the gate guard's dogs and only deal with him. They had earned the respect of Force Grey, joined them, and given the assignment of finding the Vault. They discussed talking to them about the situation. Did they do any of this? No. They decided they wanted to learn more about the Noble House of Gralhund so they went to talk to Lady Cassalanter telling them all about their situation. She most eager to listen. She told them what she knew of the Gralhund, but did nothing to help them get inside. The party realized she didn't help after leaving the Cassalanter estate, but it was too late. Lady Cassalanter told her husband the Stone was at the Gralhund Estate. He used his influence to get the Constabulary to raid the Gralhund Estate. As per the module, since the party did not deal with Gralhund themselves, using milestone leveling, their gaining a level to level 4 was delayed.

The nimblewright still left with the Stone, but now the Casslanters knew what the party up to. In fact all the bad guys learned what the party was up to. When it came to the fight at the Vault, representatives from all the factions were there. They party did play goody-two shoes. They made peace and a deal with the Gold Dragon and had Force Grey backing them up to complete the adventure with their finders' fee wealth, but it was a mess to get there.

Xapi
2022-02-22, 09:13 PM
There's a puzzle I took from WallyDM's puzzles and tweaked a bit.

There is a fountain with an activating mechanism (how to activate it is the puzzle) that turns a person's hand to stone. Your stone hand can then be used to open a door.

The Warlock figures out the puzzle and gets his hand turned to stone. They open the door and find two Stone to Flesh scrolls, in addition to plot elements and loot.

The Warlock asks if there is a benefit to keeping his hand as a stone hand. I very pointedly say: Well, it feel akward, you don't feel like you could do your spells somatic component with this... and there doesn't seem to be a benefit unless you're planning on hitting people bare handed. The Warlock says "Oh no, I have my Pact Weapon".

The Monk, obviously, stays completely silent.