Level 1 Misadventures

[Dr Bwaa]

Some of the best D&D adventures happen when the party is very low level (1-4 in my book). People can fail things hardcore, their opponents can too; it's common for a fight to last ten rounds because no one can hit each other with their +3 to hit. What crazy misadventures have you gotten yourselves into?

I'll start with a couple:

First session of a new campaign, set in early 1340s France. Very low magic, the existence of magic was discovered 4-5 years ago and has been tentatively pronounced "not heretical" if it furthers the goals of the Catholic Church.
I'm playing an orphaned Cleric, originally from Ireland, relatively well-traveled and middle-aged for the middle-ages (he's about 30). Soon I meet up with another PC, a Teutonic Knight (Paladin) on some holy mission or other from Germany.
The two of us are sent to a monastery a couple days' ride away because they appear to have all fallen desperately ill. However, I don't have a horse, so we head for a reputable merchant (funded by the Church, as is my armor, etc). While we're talking to him, we roll Spot, and see something odd about a haystack nearby. The man runs over and we follow, to discover his wife making love to a stable boy in the haystack. This is, of course, a crime, and worse, a sin. There are very strict rules for what to do in these circumstances. So, I ask the stable hand to repent, which he does, and then the Teutonic Knight castrates him, as is the law. I roll a decent Heal check to stop the blood loss, and toss a Cure Minor Wounds his way. He tanks me, and passes out.
Now, in the meantime, the woman is just freaking out, and beginning to show signs of demonic possession (wierd growls, flahing eyes, strange colors in her skin), and getting aggressive. So the Theutonic Knight holds her down while I ask her to repent, which she refuses to do. I pull out a cross and she writhes away from it, so I roll some Profession (Clergy) to perform an exorcism, which doesn't really work but she starts going really nuts. So I give her her last rights, and then, as the other PC is holding her down, take my longsword and kill her.
Or at least, that's how it SHOULD have gone. What actually happened was that it took three hits to do enough damage to kill her, so I'm hacking her open in front of her husbands eyes. She eventually dies and we drag her out of the stable to burn her corpse (damn heathen witches!), but somehow we dragged her on her front so we leave a huge mess of entrails as we go. We eventually burn her, give our condolences to her husband, take our horse, and leave. We found out a couple weeks later that he killed himself as we were leaving.

-------

Then there was the time that I was DMing. It was, again, the first session, this time with a big group of people who had never played before in their lives. So one, the half-orc barbarian, goes into a bar with the intention of picking a fight (I know this). I describe the contents of the bar, including a small family of gnomes, a couple dwarves, a pair of human women and a figure sitting in the corner, robed and hooded, staying out of the light. Of course he goes straight over to the last one and throws the man's ale on the ground and starts making threats. The elf (as can now be seen) looks up at him, and, a moment later, throws a pair of daggers across the table, critting with one and nearly critting with the other despite the horrible penalties he incurred for throwing them both in one round. Kelrath (the barbarian) passed out immediately (having failed his massive damage fort save), and woke up in the morning in the tavern with several pieces of gold missing =D

[FlyMolo]

That's incredible. I dunno if this counts, but I dropped an airship on my players at second level. That was fun. Killed off my problem player, too.

The other time was the time they were in a teleporting chessboard(the squares alternated, teleporting people on the black squares on one turn, the red ones the next. 1d6 squares in a random direction. Fun.) They were being attacked by kobolds, who kept pouring into the room. They were being created off screen by a kobold-summoning device. The entire party is flickering around, trying to figure out how not to get teleported, while kobolds are pouring in. Lots of kobolds die, and the party slips out through a weird stone shape trap/transport thing I made up on the spot. Some of players don't catch on to how they can get out, and one barely makes it, sprinting across the board, tagging the trigger as he runs past, provoking so many AoOs that he slides into his safe stone shape cubbyhole on a slide lubricated with his own blood. Good times.

[Burley]

The other time was the time they were in a teleporting chessboard(the squares alternated, teleporting people on the black squares on one turn, the red ones the next. 1d6 squares in a random direction. Fun.)

That is probably the funnest idea I've ever read. I'm totally using this...if I can.

[mostlyharmful]

I once mauled the party wizard when they went rat splatting. Not dire rats.:smallredface:

[Toliudar]

After my level 3-4 group managed to take out a tower complex of well-organized goblins with some unusually coordinated tactics on the PC's part, they were feeling a bit cocky. The gnome druid opens up a door in the tower, hears some rats squeaking around in the darkness inside, and decides to go in and make nicey-nice with the little furry things. She even makes the cute little kissing sound...

...not knowing that these are feral rats that have been tormented and starved to the point of insanity by the goblins.

Five lunge at her (this is 3.0, so pre-swarm rules as far as I knew) and four manage to successfully grapple her to grab hold. They're holding onto legs, arms - everywhere. She runs out, screaming. The human paladin is trying to hit the rats with a longspear. The rest of the group - players and characters alike - are literally rolling on the floor laughing, and of no use whatsoever. Took longer to get the rats off than it did to kill fifteen goblins.

I've got to say, though, that the thought of the very slow, very painful exorcism and execution...that's priceless.

[RukiTanuki]

My group's Level 1 Eberron adventure went... interestingly.

The Gnome Cleric stepped up to go toe-to-toe with a Horrid Rat. A 1d6+1d6 acid bite later, she was in the negatives. The character actually developed a fear of rats after that.

The Warforged Rogue (soon to be Rogue/Fighter) with Adamantine Body decided to head-butt a locked adamantine door. He walked away with the door, and his forehead, slightly dented. The cleric healed the damage he'd taken, and the group actually heard his head dent pop back into place.

The reason I had the most fun with 1st-level adventures is that it gives me a good opportunity to use kobolds. I find this far too amusing, because I run kobolds with the same mannerisms as the little guys on team Covenant in Halo.

I ran some of the 4e Preview stuff with my players (who loved it). My blaster-heavy player took the time to use the mage hand ability to grab a bunch of broken glass, moving it to the battle to create kobold caltrops. Now I just need to find a way to evoke that kind of creativity from the player once he gets ahold of Fireball... :)

[Zocelot]

I once had a party of 5 level 1 human fighters, each of them with combat expertise, phalanx fighting, and dodge. 3 of their ACs were 27, and 2 were 25.
I couldn't hit them with anything but touch spells and magic missile.
Eventually, I forced them to make a normal party.

[Behold_the_Void]

I once had a party of 5 level 1 human fighters, each of them with combat expertise, phalanx fighting, and dodge. 3 of their ACs were 27, and 2 were 25.
I couldn't hit them with anything but touch spells and magic missile.
Eventually, I forced them to make a normal party.

Color Spray would have likely ruined their day something fierce.

[Donovan]

ADD Moment: lordhenry4000, if I were in your shoes I would have probably asked the DM if I could have simply made Coup de Grace attack. From a purely RAW point of view, holding her down would be a grapple and she wouldn't be helpless but if I was the DM, I would grant some latitude for having a fully grown paladin in armor basically sitting on her arms.

[Overlord]

The other time was the time they were in a teleporting chessboard(the squares alternated, teleporting people on the black squares on one turn, the red ones the next. 1d6 squares in a random direction. Fun.)

Wait...what? Red squares on a chessboard? :smallconfused:

If I wa a player, that would have been an instant warning sign that the board was related to the Spooooky Wizard that Lives by the Coast.

[Zocelot]

Color Spray would have likely ruined their day something fierce.

Or grease, or any number of first level spells. But the fact remains that you can only have so many vs. wizard encounters before they start to get boring.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

Or grease, or any number of first level spells. But the fact remains that you can only have so many vs. wizard encounters before they start to get boring.

But when just 1 results in a TPK it doesn't matter how "boring" the second one is.

[Avor]

Level 1 samurai.

I heroicly leap from the boat onto the dock, slaw a Gnoll with a crital, kill another, all with out a point of damage taken. The third gnoll crits me in the head with a morning star, end of story.



I once had a party of 5 level 1 human fighters, each of them with combat expertise, phalanx fighting, and dodge. 3 of their ACs were 27, and 2 were 25.
I couldn't hit them with anything but touch spells and magic missile.
Eventually, I forced them to make a normal party.

Swim checks.

[Ward.]

I once had a party of 5 level 1 human fighters, each of them with combat expertise, phalanx fighting, and dodge. 3 of their ACs were 27, and 2 were 25.
I couldn't hit them with anything but touch spells and magic missile.
Eventually, I forced them to make a normal party.

Those are my favourite kinds of stories.


I think one time we had a barbarian attempt to boot a gnome over some village walls, it was a fast paced "joke" game so I can't remember how it turned out.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Probably the worst 1st level misadventure I recall was in a Star Wars d20 game. Myself and one other party member infiltrated a small Imperial facility, managing to get inside with fairly little trouble.

While sneaking around inside, we managed to reveal ourselves to a patrol of four stormtroopers, thanks to a tanked Hide check. Naturally, blasters came out all around and an epic firefight began.

An epic fail of a fire fight, that is. Both PCs got awful inits - which wasn't a big deal since all four stormtroopers did, too. Now, I should note that for ease of book-keeping we were using an alternate rule where we didn't track ammo, but a roll of 1 meant a power pack died when you tried to shoot and it needed to be replaced.

It was eight rounds before anyone actually hit anyone else. In that period, at every combatant rolled 1 at least once, and one of the stormtroopers and the other PC both did so twice. After the one round someone hit, the following round every character was either reloading or had a power pack die (meaning that over two rounds, every combatant had rolled a 1, and that no actual shots were fired that round). Eventually, I actually ran out of blaster packs, and ended up pistol whipping the last stormtrooper to end the combat. All told, it took about 20 rounds of combat for us to take down four very low level NPCs, and it seemed like at least 1 critical failure was rolled each round.

[Kol Korran]

ok, one of my stories: the game took place in Eberron, near the end of the last war (for those who don't know, think of it as a century long bloody war, and in the end of which no one realy remembers why there are fighting). the party was a group of new recruits to newly established reenforcement groups, for the country of Cyre. the unit was moving towards their post and the enemy- a large goblinoid army.
near their destination, some news arrive- somehow small raiding groups have slipped through the front, and were harassing settlements behind the line. most of these have evacuated, but one mixed dwarf and human colony haven't. the party had proved itself (about level 2 or 3 so far) so their commander sends them as a recon squad, as the rest of the unit heads to their ordered post.
after several days of traveling, aand meeting with some survivors and destroying a wolf and goblin patrol, the party reaches the outskirt of the settlement. now, it is built like a small fortress on a hill, with one entrance to the mines in the fort, and another just at the foot of the hill. as they learned from the survivors- a larger raiding force have conquered the place, killed soem of them, and probably locked up the others. the goblinoids have wolves, worgs, hippogrifs, and probably some caster with them. in short- don't try tojust "kill them all", or even "pick them one by one", since they are very organised.
now, i tend to allow my players free choices (or at least i like to think so)- they can derail the plot, but not every situation is easely tackled, and i do not plan things to always be "PC friendly". i do however try to plan enough to allow for various situations and plans. i had a few things in mind i thought of, but i sort of couldn't help the following:
the party ranger (sneaky scout ahead with a bow type of ranger) felt preety confident in itself, and wanted to get closer, get more information. the others objected, but they let him, not before deciding on a place to meet in case they need to retreat (a lookout). some even followed it from several hundred feet behind (wooded area mostly, with clearings around the fort). it got closer, i mentioned the guards. it got closer, i told him of the wolf patrols it hears. it got closer, i mentioned him seeing a hippogrif. enough warnings? appearently not...
he got closer, and failed his move silently check, and one of the patrols diverted towrds him. hearing that, he climbed a tree, trying to hide. he rolled good on his dice, but... he forgot about the scent. then began the desperate fight and trying to escape the (far faster) wolves, complicated by the oncoming Hippogrif and it's rider, and another patrol, who came rushing when a warning horn was blown. in short, it was a hopeless fight (though i played it fair), and the party tried to help by downing the hipogrif and rider from afar.
but as the ranger fell, downed by a golbin arrow, the rest fled off, to regroup and think what is next.
the interesting part comes now actually- i decided the goblins stabized the ranger, and took him for questioning. the session ended there, and i invited the player some time earlier of the next meeting, to see if he wants to try and orchestrate an escape. now, the player is usually considered pretty thick by his team, and his attention span is realy short. but every once in awhile he comes up with some real gems!
he was tortured a bit and then placed with the rest of the prisoners, in one of the buildings in the fort (they were to be taken as slaves for the goblins tribe). he then orchestrated hiding in one of their water barrels, and for two of the other prisoners to fake a fight, and shove the barrel aside, he then hid in a corpse pile of the goblinoids, taking the odd weapon. he then used the weapons to jam a gate an pulley mechanism (for transporting ores from the lower entrance), tried to climb down and fell (got to exactly 0 hp) hid amongst the lower patrols, stole a stabilizing patch from their supplies (heals exaclty 1 hp). killed a resting hobgolin with a shovel for a warning bullet (a bullet which shed red light when thrown) caused a diversion in the opposite direction of where it was going, then trodded of in the woods, towards the meeting point. his escape was found, and suddenly the hunt was on. he hid in the water of a nearby crick, submeging himself and breathing by a straw, he later climbed a tree (now nearly without scent), as a patrol went underneath. as most of the patrol left, one of the wolf and goblin heard something, and stayed to investigate. he fellon the goblin and killed it with the rusty shovel, he then grappled the wolf on it's back and choke it to death. he then ran, and found the dead hippogrifs body, cut it up and hid in it as the patrol (two members missg) tried to hunt him again.
tired, smelly, bloody, he came near the meeting place, as another patrol was hot on his trail. he tried yelling for the party, elated he got so far, certain that together they could kill the patrolers! but suddenly he fell to a simple snare, captruing it and making it unconcious, just as the patrol came.
you see, the party thought he was dead, and that sooner or later, the wolves will track the trail back. so they left a little surprised, and relocated... that was one of the most surprised falls from glory i have ever seen, and when the other players showed up for the play, he decided not to tell them. when they later got to rescue him (another story, less interesting). he nearly burst when two of them poked him and said "Gee! you're useless! do we have to do everything for you?"

(small note: other than placing that patch, i didn't try to assist him in anyway! i guess great need is the mother of improvisation as well! Fugitive? hah! i've seen better!)

[SimperingToad]

Waaaaaay back when...

1E, using Keep on the Borderlands: party stumbles into a random encounter just a short while outside the castle gates... giant ants. Half get knocked to unconsciousness/negatives. Back to castle.

They finally reach the caves a few days later...

Regards,
theToad

[Mushroom Ninja]

In one of the first Star Wars RPGs I ran, I dropped an ARC-170 on my PCs, but they lived.